Judge gives Trump administration partial victory in "Alligator Alcatraz" case

A federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a lawsuit brought by detainees at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, handing a partial victory to the Trump administration and Florida state officials — though other challenges over "Alligator Alcatraz" are still pending.

Civil rights attorneys had sued the Trump administration and the state of Florida, seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to lawyers. It's the second lawsuit challenging practices at Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial detention facility that the Trump administration has cast as a symbol of its crackdown on illegal immigration — along with a suit arguing the facility had skirted environmental rules.

But after a hearing on Monday, Miami-based U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz dismissed one part of their suit that alleged the government was violating the Fifth Amendment because it hadn't made clear for weeks which immigration court had jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz, preventing detainees from filing court petitions. Ruiz ruled that this claim is now moot because the government has since said publicly that the court at the Krome Detention Center in South Florida will hear the detainees' claims.

"The Court can do no more," Ruiz wrote.

The judge did not dismiss several other claims that the government is violating the First Amendment by allegedly making it difficult for detainees to talk to their lawyers, especially in confidential settings. Ruiz said that continues to be a "live controversy." But he ordered the case to be transferred to a different federal court, because Alligator Alcatraz is technically within the boundaries of the Orlando-based Middle District of Florida.

The federal government has denied that defendants are blocked from meeting with attorneys.

The civil rights attorneys wanted Ruiz to identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detention center so that petitions can be filed for the detainees' bond or release. The attorneys say that hearings for their cases have been routinely canceled in federal Florida immigration courts by judges who say they don't have jurisdiction over the detainees held in the Everglades.

At the start of Monday's hearing, government attorneys said they would designate the immigration court at the Krome North Service Processing Center in the Miami area as having jurisdiction over the detention center in the Everglades in an effort to address some of the civil rights attorneys' constitutional concerns. The judge told the government attorneys that he didn't expect them to change that designation without good reason.

But before delving into the core issues of the detainees' rights, Ruiz wanted to hear about whether the lawsuit was filed in the proper jurisdiction in Miami. The state and federal government defendants have argued that even though the isolated airstrip where the facility was built is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida's southern district is the wrong venue since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state's middle district.

The hearing ended without the judge making an immediate ruling. Ruiz suggested that the case against the federal defendants might be appropriate for the southern district because a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miami is responsible for oversight of the detention center under an agreement between the state and federal governments.

But Ruiz also questioned whether the case against the state defendants might be better in the middle district, because all of the purported civil rights violations occurred at the facility itself, which is located in Collier County, several miles outside the southern district.

All parties have agreed that if the complaints against the state are moved to another venue, then the complaints against the federal government should be moved as well.

The hearing over legal access comes as another federal judge in Miami considers whether construction and operations at the facility should be halted indefinitely because federal environmental rules weren't followed.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses testified at a hearing that wrapped up last week. She has said she plans to issue a ruling before the order expires later this week.

The state of Florida has disputed claims that Alligator Alcatraz detainees have been unable to meet with their attorneys. The state's lawyers said that since July 15, when videoconferencing started at the facility, the state has granted every request for a detainee to meet with an attorney, and in-person meetings started July 28. The first detainees arrived at the beginning of July.

But the civil rights attorneys said that even if lawyers have been scheduled to meet with their clients at the detention center, it hasn't been in private or confidential, and it is more restrictive than at other immigration detention facilities. They said scheduling delays and an unreasonable advanced notice requirement have hindered their ability to meet with the detainees, thereby violating their constitutional rights.

Civil rights attorneys said officers are going cell-to-cell to pressure detainees into signing voluntary removal orders before they're allowed to consult their attorneys, and some detainees have been deported even though they didn't have final removal orders. Along with the spread of a respiratory infection and rainwater flooding their tents, the circumstances have fueled a feeling of desperation among detainees, the attorneys wrote in a court filing.

• Immigration
• Prison
• Civil Rights
• Ron DeSantis
• Florida