MIAMI — A federal judge in Miami has dismissed part of a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz" and transferred the remaining case to a different jurisdiction.
U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz issued the decision late Monday, writing in a 47-page ruling that Fifth Amendment claims the detainees at the facility don't have confidential access to hearings in immigration court were rendered moot when the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North Processing Center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.
Over the weekend, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem filed a “notice of material development” saying judges at Krome North Processing Service Center would handle the detainees’ cases. Immigration hearings already take place at Krome, a Miami immigrant-detention center.
Citing that change, Ruiz granted the state defendants a change of venue motion to the Middle District of Florida, where the remaining claims of Fifth Amendment violations will be addressed. Those include allegations of delays in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and a lack of confidentiality when detainees are talking to their attorneys by phone or videoconference at the facility whose official name is the South Detention Facility.
ACLU attorney Eunice Cho, the lead attorney for the detainees, said the federal government reversed course only last weekend and allowed the detainees to petition an immigration court because of the lawsuit.
"It should not take a lawsuit to force the government to abide by the law and the Constitution," Cho said. "We look forward to continuing the fight."
The judge heard arguments from both sides in a hearing earlier Monday in Miami. Civil rights attorneys were seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure detainees at the facility have access to their lawyers and can get a hearing.
The state and federal government had argued that even though the isolated airstrip where the facility is located is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida's Southern District was the wrong venue since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state's Middle District.
Judge Ruiz had hinted during a hearing last week that he had some concerns over which jurisdiction was appropriate.
"Much has changed since the complaint's filing," Ruiz wrote.
Six of the plaintiffs have met with lawyers through videoconference, though they claimed the conferences are not confidential since they are not in an enclosed room and staff is close by and in listening proximity to the detainees.
A subset of detainees alleged they are eligible for bond hearings and their lawyers have been "unable to access — yet alone identify — the proper court for those hearings."
But Ruiz noted the facts in the case changed Saturday, when the Trump administration designated the Krome facility as the immigration court with jurisdiction over all detainees at the detention center.
Ruiz wrote that the case has "a tortured procedural history" since it was filed July 16, weeks after the first group of detainees arrived at the facility.
"Nearly every aspect of the Plaintiffs' civil action — their causes of action, their facts in support, their theories of venue, their arguments on the merits and their requests for relief — have changed with each filing," the judge wrote.
The lawsuit over access to legal representation is one of two key federal court battles about the detention center. In the other case, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity allege state and federal officials did not comply with a law requiring that an environmental-impact study be performed before developing the facility, which is surrounded by Big Cypress National Preserve.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 issued a temporary restraining order that put on hold for two weeks additional construction or infrastructure, paving or installation of new lighting at the site.
Williams has said she plans to issue a ruling before the order expires later this week. She had yet to rule on the venue question.
State Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said last week the facility held 1,000 people and has a capacity for 2,000. Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have touted the facility as helping carry out President Donald Trump’s push to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
The News Service of Florida and The Associated Press contributed to this report.