FORT MYERS, Fla. — Two former detainees at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" testified Wednesday that they could be punished for seeking legal advice and had to write down phone numbers for attorneys on walls and beds using soap because they had no access to pen and paper.
The two men, one who was deported to Colombia and another who was sent back to Haiti, testified via video in a federal court in Fort Myers, Florida, that their monitored calls to people outside the detention center would be dropped whenever they talked about seeking legal advice or trying to get an attorney.
During a two-day hearing that started Wednesday, civil rights attorneys representing the detainees were seeking a temporary injunction from U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell that would ensure that detainees at the state-run Everglades facility get the same access to their attorneys as they do at federally-run detention centers. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
The detainees’ lawsuit claims that their First Amendment rights are being violated. They say their attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys had made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
During Wednesday morning's hearing, the former detainees testified remotely from their home countries using translators and only their initials to protect their identities. While at the facility, the former detainee from Haiti said he was asked to sign documents he didn't understand, which ended up being papers to self-deport to Haiti where he feared going back to. He had asked for asylum in the United States.
He then was presented with a second-set of papers which someone explained to him would get him self-deported to Mexico, which he signed because of his fear of returning to Haiti. In the end, he was sent back to Haiti, he said.
State officials who are defendants in the lawsuit denied restricting the detainees' access to their attorneys and said any protocols were in place for security reasons and to make sure there was sufficient staffing. Federal officials who also are defendants said that no First Amendment rights were being violated.
“Moreover, any Alligator Alcatraz policy regarding attorney-detainee communications is valid so long as it reasonably relates to legitimate penological interest,” they wrote.
The third witness to testify Wednesday was Juan Lopez Vega, deputy field office director of ICE's enforcement and removal operations in Miami, who unsuccessfully tried to quash a subpoena compelling him to show up in court. Even though his job included oversight of detainees at the state-run facility, he testified that he had visited the center only once.
Case is 1 of 3 federal lawsuits
The case over access to the legal system was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center. Another lawsuit brought by detainees in federal court in Fort Myers argued that immigration was a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state had no authority to operate the facility under federal law. That lawsuit ended earlier this month after the immigrant detainee who filed the case agreed to be removed from the United States.
In the third lawsuit, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center's environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.
Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Besides the Everglades facility, which received its first detainees in July, Florida has opened an immigration detention center in northeast Florida and is looking at opening a third facility in the Florida Panhandle.
Besides the Everglades facility, other detention centers getting unwanted attention include ICE facilities at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas; one in Miami; and others in California City and Adelanto, both in California. Common complaints include poor and insufficient food and lack of access to attorneys.
The ICE detainee population, which excludes Alligator Alcatraz and other state-run facilities, has roughly doubled to about 70,000 since Trump took office a year ago, fueled by a one-time injection of $45 billion for immigration detention.
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