Alligator Alcatraz

Florida’s controversial immigration detention center, known as "Alligator Alcatraz" could shut down as early as next month.

A report in the New York Times said that federal and state officials are considering closing the Everglades detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. The Associated Press reported that Gov. DeSantis said site always was meant as "temporary."

A wildfire being identified as the Jetport fire is located near the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in eastern Collier County.

A lawyer says guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed detainees at a state-run immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades. A lawyer for two of the detainees says the beating happened after they complained about not having phone access on April 2. The lawyer says the guards taunted and then attacked the detainees. Guards punched one of her clients in the face and broke another detainee's wrist. Phone service was restored the next day without explanation. The allegations are detailed in a court filing accusing officials of not complying with a judge's order to provide proper phone access for legal calls.

Environmental groups have asked a federal appellate court panel to lift its temporary halt on closing an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. Known as "Alligator Alcatraz," the center remains open due to arguments by Florida and the Trump administration. They claimed the state hadn't gotten federal reimbursement, so it wasn't required to follow federal environmental law. On Tuesday, during a hearing in Miami, the judges questioned how much control the federal government had over the state-built facility. Florida was notified in late September of $608 million in federal funding approval. The environmental lawsuit was one of three federal challenges to the facility since it opened.

A federal judge has ruled that the immigration detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys. U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a preliminary injunction Friday saying officials at the Florida facility must provide access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored, unrecorded outgoing legal calls. They must also provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people detained there. The order also outlined information that must be made available to detained people and their attorneys in multiple languages. The lawsuit says the rules force visits to be booked three days ahead. It says delays and transfers block legal help. State and federal officials deny rights violations.

Florida lawmakers approved significant new guardrails Friday for the multibillion-dollar emergency fund that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration used to construct and operate the sprawling immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Florida initially sought $1.4 billion from the feds for Alligator Alcatraz.

The Lee County Courthouse was the home for a legal showdown between The Immigration Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz and several former detainees.

A Leon County circuit judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by five Democratic lawmakers who sought access to the immigrant-detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying laws about access to state prisons and local jails do not apply to the Everglades facility. Judge Jonathan Sjostrom on Friday sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in the lawsuit filed after lawmakers made an unannounced visit to the detention center in July but were denied access. The Democrats contended in the lawsuit the denial violated laws allowing access by legislators to correctional institutions.