Immigration Detention

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

Florida lawmakers will be back for the legislative session. Many major topics including property taxes, school vouchers and exploring changes to Florida’s congressional maps will be discussed.

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.

More than 60 people gathered outside the Everglades detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz for their 21st freedom vigil. Organized by The Workers Circle, a Jewish social justice organization, the group prayed for those inside.

The government's focus on perceived illegal immigration has reached a new high as over 65,000 people are being held in ICE Detention Centers, surpassing previous records.

Seven years ago, during the first administration of President Donald Trump, children were taken from their families the moment they crossed the border into the United States. Under a policy of zero tolerance for illegal crossing, Customs and Border Protection officers detained adults while children were sent into the federal shelter system. The aim: to deter other families from following. But after widespread public outcry and a lawsuit, the administration ended it. Today, family separations are back, only now they are happening all across the country.

The Fallout from the immigration raids conducted by Immigration & Customs Enforcement are beginning to take a toll on small businesses.

Detainees arriving at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades are given color-coded uniforms and segregated based on criminal history and flight risk. That is according to a handbook made public as part of a lawsuit over attorney access at the site known as "Alligator Alcatraz." Civil rights and environmental groups have filed three lawsuits over conditions. In one lawsuit, civil rights groups argued the facility operates outside federal law. They asked a federal judge in Fort Myers this week to stop the facility from holding detainees. A different federal judge ordered it closed in August for environmental reasons, but it remains open pending appeals.

A federal appeals court panel has put on hold a lower court judge's order to wind down operations of the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." The three-judge panel in Atlanta on Thursday decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge's order pending the outcome of an appeal. The judges in the majority said it was in the public interest. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a preliminary injunction last month ordering operations at the facility to be wound down by the end of October, with detainees transferred to other facilities and equipment and fencing removed.

A former detainee at Alligator Alcatraz describes conditions and the circumstances of his apprehension by a border patrol agent.