Immigration Detention

Florida's corrections agency and ICE updated an agreement on handling federal immigration detainees, but they did it more than a month after 'Alligator Alcatraz' opened. This update was made public Thursday in court documents. The facility built in the Florida Everglades has faced criticism for allegedly restricting detainees' access to attorneys and immigration courts. A civil rights lawsuit has been filed, and a federal judge has ordered officials to clarify who has legal authority over detainees. Another judge in a separate lawsuit temporarily halted construction on Thursday while she considers whether it violates environmental laws. Florida claims detainees have had access to legal counsel.

For generations, The Miccosukee Tribe have lived and created a connection with the land that now hosts the Immigration Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was given the chance to tour the controversial Immigration Detention Center in the heart of The Everglades. She has introduced legislation to defund the facility.

In a matter of eight days, The State of Florida took a barely used Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and transformed it into the Immigration Detention Center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

President Donald Trump said that Alligator Alcatraz will house “some of the most vicious people on the planet”. However, reports have shown the opposite.

When reports of inhuman conditions at the Everglades Immigration Detention Center were revealed, Rep. Maxwell Frost was one of several congressional leaders who demanded access to inspect the facility.

DeSantis assured Alligator Alcatraz would have zero impact on the Everglades. However, light pollution and additional construction on the site has led to multiple lawsuits to shut the facility down.

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys. They also say that the detainees are being held without any charges and that federal immigration courts have canceled bond hearings. A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was held Monday over the lawsuit. Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to detainees, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

One major complaint regarding The Immigration Detention Center has been attorney’s being unable to contact their defendants once they have been brought to the facility.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that deportation flights by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security out of the Everglades detention center have begun with about 100 detainees transferred out of the country.Speaking at a media briefing at what has been dubbed Alligator Alcatraz Friday morning, DeSantis said the state is looking forward to increasing the removals.