Federal Judge Wants To Know ‘Who’s Running the Show’ at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A U.S. district judge on Monday pushed state and federal officials to provide a copy of an intergovernmental agreement showing “who’s running the show” at an Everglades immigrant-detention center, calling the situation “urgent” as at least 100 detainees have been deported amid legal wrangling over the remote facility.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz called for the agreement during a hearing in a lawsuit alleging, in part, that people held at the facility — dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — are being prevented access to lawyers and are unable to contest their detention.

Eunice Cho, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, told Ruiz that procedures at the detention center are “unprecedented.”

“We have not ever seen a situation where hundreds of people are being held without charge, without access to the immigration courts, under a legal authority that has not been explained,” Cho said, adding that people at the facility are being detained without being charged under federal immigration laws or state criminal laws.

Cho said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are “disclaiming responsibility for people held at the facility” and telling detainees that they are in the custody of state officials, who maintain they are operating the detention center on behalf of the Trump administration as part of a cooperative immigration-enforcement program, known as the 287(g) program.

“Everyone seems to be avoiding responsibility for providing legal recourse for people who are being held at the facility. We’ve never seen immigrant detainees being denied access to immigration courts in this manner, and we need to have more clarity as to just the basic sense of who has legal custody over the plaintiffs and on what authority,” Cho said.

Ruiz indicated that the 287(g) agreement is critical to understanding the roles the state and federal governments are playing at the remote facility, which Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration built adjacent to an airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

“I am curious, because in the very short term, knowing what’s happening with the 287 agreements would really help me, let alone all of us, understand what are viable claims” in the lawsuit, the judge said, calling the issue “fundamental.” Ruiz said he would consider viewing the agreement privately, allowing portions of it to be redacted or placing it under court seal.

But Nicholas Meros, an attorney for DeSantis and his administration, appeared to balk. He said the state only had been served with the lawsuit on Friday.

“I’m not, I’m not prepared today to say definitively what our position is,” Meros told Ruiz. “We certainly have an idea. But you know, I need to confirm that.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and immigration attorneys filed the lawsuit on July 16 alleging First Amendment and due-process violations. Plaintiffs’ lawyers are seeking class-action status and are asking Ruiz for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction requiring detainees to have access to legal representation.

Meros said Monday the First Amendment claim made by the plaintiffs “doesn’t guarantee them the right” to access the 287(g) agreement.

“They need to provide some justifications under the law” to obtain it, he added.

Meros also argued that the “threshold” issue for the judge was the legal venue where the lawsuit was filed.

The airport is in Miami-Dade and Collier counties. The lawsuit was filed in the federal Southern District of Florida, which includes Miami-Dade County. The address of the detention center is in Ochopee, an unincorporated community in Collier County, which is in the Middle District of Florida.

The venue issue also is the focus of an upcoming hearing in a separate lawsuit that environmental groups filed challenging the detention center. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity allege that state and federal officials failed to comply with federal law requiring an environmental impact study before building the facility at the site surrounded by the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve.

Lawyers for state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie in that lawsuit are arguing that “only a sliver” of the runway is in Miami-Dade County, with the rest in Collier County. As a result, they argue the lawsuit should be moved to the Middle District of Florida.

Marlene Rodriguez, who represents the Trump administration, told Ruiz on Monday that the Middle District would be a “better forum and more convenient forum” for the lawsuit about detainees’ access to legal representation.

The Miami-based Ruiz appeared skeptical, however, saying that the venue issue “could be a loser” because at least one of the government defendants resides in the Southern District.

Meros told the judge that detainees were scheduled to start having “in-person meetings with” lawyers on Monday. The “changing facts” could “potentially moot out the case,” Meros suggested.

“I am very much aware … that there’s a changing situation on the ground,” Ruiz said, pointing to affidavits from immigration attorneys who said they were unable to schedule video conferences with detainees, calls with clients were being monitored and some people waited two hours in line to access a phone.

“A lot of it looked to me, you know, growing pains, if you will, of a new facility not having their act together,” Ruiz said.

The judge acknowledged that “it’s a fast-moving situation” and asked the state to provide updated information to “give me clarity” about circumstances at the detention center.

“I do need more information on how things are going to date,” Ruiz said.

Cho said workers at the detention center “are going around trying to force people to sign deportation orders without the ability to speak to attorneys and without the opportunity to to file immigration bond motions with the court.”

She urged Ruiz to expedite the lawsuit.

“We certainly do not know what the situation is, and the government’s representations here in court are actually bearing truth on the ground,” she said. “Again, as I noted, 100 people have been removed. People are not able to file any petitions with the immigration court at this time, and it is of utmost urgency.”

Ruiz agreed to fast-track the case, saying he would consider the venue issue among other arguments at a hearing on Aug. 18, so the lawsuit would be fully briefed if it has to be reassigned to a judge in another district.

“I know full well that you would just prefer to focus energies on venue,” Ruiz told Meros. “At the end of the day, I don’t want to delay.”

–Dara Kam, News Service of Florida