Advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit claiming that migrants held at the Florida detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz are being prevented from accessing legal counsel.
EFE added that the suit also claims migrants are not being given due process, and that lawyers can't file legal documents seeking the release of their clients. They added that they have also been prevented from visiting clients at the center or even call them on the phone.
"These restrictions violate the rights of the people detained and those of the organizations providing legal services and lawyers whose clients are held in the center," reads a passage of the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Immigrant Justice.
The lawsuit went on to decry the conditions at the facility, noting "scorching temperatures, a heavy presence of mosquitoes, flooding inside the tents and lack of access to water." It added that detainees have had to "manually unclog toilets with their bare hands."
The claims echo those of Democratic lawmakers, who toured the facility this past weekend. Built in just over a week on a remote airstrip in the Everglades, is designed to hold up to 3,000 detainees as part of a broader push by state and federal officials to expand immigration enforcement.
"There are really disturbing, vile conditions and this place needs to be shut the hell down," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who toured the site alongside other Democrats and Republicans. She is also quoted by CNN as saying "they are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage."
Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL) told the outlet that the lawmakers were concerned about reports of unhygienic conditions due to toilets not working and "feces being spread everywhere," while Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) raised alarms over flooding risks in the low-lying area, particularly during hurricane season. He described the site as "a cruel political stunt."
Republican officials who participated in the same tour offered a starkly different assessment. State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-FL) said the facility was "well-run, safe, and clean," adding that "the rhetoric coming out of the Democrats does not match the reality." Ingoglia said a handful of detainees became "a little raucous" when the visitors appeared, but he was not able to tell what they were saying.
The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly defended the practices at the complex, stating in a recent post on X that "ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens" and that "all detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members."
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