The two lawsuits against “Alligator Alcatraz” touch on two different sides of the facility’s potential effects: one of the claims takes issue with the prison’s environmental impact, while the other raises concerns over inmates’ rights.
Two lawsuits continue to threaten the future of Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz,” a controversial makeshift detention center located in the state’s Everglade swamps.
According to CNN, President Donald Trump and Florida state Gov. Ron DeSantis recently toured the facility, which can house more than 3,000 detainees.
Officials from the DeSantis administrations say the site was selected, in part, due to its geographical attributes. Aside from being close to a large airport runway, it is surrounded by wetlands inhabited by dangerous wildlife, including alligators and invasive pythons—hazards that could dissuade escape attempts.
The two lawsuits against “Alligator Alcatraz” touch on two different sides of the facility’s potential effects: one of the claims takes issue with the prison’s environmental impact, while the other raises concerns over inmates’ rights.
“Defending the Everglades in this legal case is critically important,” said EarthJustice attorney Tania Galloni, whose organization is representing some of the plaintiffs. “This is a public natural resource we all depend on, and transforming this site into a mass detention center is reckless, especially without any environmental review.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the US Immigration Law Counsel, and Florida Keys Immigration, meanwhile, are pursuing a separate challenge against “the government’s attempts to prevent people detained in civil immigration custody at Alligator Alcatraz from communicating with legal counsel and from filing motions with the immigration court that could result in their release from detention.”
“Defendants in this case have blocked detainees held at the facility from access to legal counsel,” attorneys wrote in the second lawsuit. “No protocols exist at this facility for providing standard means of confidential attorney-client communication, such as in-person attorney visitation and phone or video calls that are available at any other detention facility, jail, or prison.”
The second lawsuit names U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, along with other Trump administration officials, as a defendant.
Florida state officials continue to defend the detention center as a major step in the fight against illegal immigration.
“We have partnered with the president of the United States, with the White House, with anybody and everybody who is serious about getting things done and getting illegal immigrants out of our nation and out of our country because that’s what Florida does,” Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins said on Thursday.
Sources
What we know about the lawsuits that could shut down ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
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