Above video: Alligator Alcatraz Construction sues orders in Florida
MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami has dismissed a portion of a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the Florida Everglades Immigration Detention Center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” and has moved the remaining cases to another jurisdiction.
US District Judge Rodolfo Lewis announced the decision late Monday, writing that the Fifth Amendment allegedly claimed that detainees at the facility had no confidential access to immigration court hearings.
The judge granted the state defendant a change in the venue’s motion to the Central District of Florida, where the remaining claims of the initial amendment violations will be addressed. These include allegations of delay in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and lack of confidentiality when detainees are talking to lawyers on a phone or video conference at a facility whose official name is a Southern detention facility.
Eunice Cho, the ACLU attorney, the detainee’s chief attorney, said the federal government simply overturned the course last weekend, allowing detainees to petition the immigration court for the case.
“We should not file a lawsuit to force the government to adhere to the law and the constitution,” Cho said. “We look forward to continuing the fight.”
The judge heard debate from both sides during a hearing early Monday in Miami. Civil rights attorneys had sought a preliminary injunction to allow detainees at the facility to access and receive hearings.
The state and federal governments had argued that the Southern District of Florida was the wrong venue, as Florida’s southern district is located in neighbouring Collier County, in the state’s central district, despite the isolated runway where the facility is located.
Judge Lewis had suggested at last week’s hearing that he had some concerns about which jurisdiction would be appropriate.
“Many has changed since the complaint was filed,” Lewis wrote.
Six plaintiffs met with lawyers through video conferences, but they argued that the meeting was not secret as they were not in enclosed rooms, and staff were close to and kept in detainees.
A subset of detainees argued that they were eligible for bond hearings and that their lawyers were “appropriate courts for those hearings” and “still cannot be identified, but by itself it cannot be identified.”
However, Lewis was changed when the facts of the case were changed on Saturday, when the Trump administration designated the Chrome facility as an immigration court that has jurisdiction over all detainees in the detention center.
Lewis wrote that the case has a “history of tortured procedural history” since the first group of detainees to arrive at the facility was filed on July 16th.
“Nearly every aspect of the plaintiff’s civil suit — the causes of their cases, facts of support, venue theory, discussion of merits, and requests for relief have been varied by each submission,” the judge wrote.
State and federal defendants held the same argument last week about the jurisdiction of the second case filed by the Environmental Group and the Mikkoskie tribe to halt further construction and operation at the Everglades Detention Center until complying with federal environmental laws.
On August 7th, Miami District Judge Kathleen Williams testified at last week’s hearing but ordered a 14-day suspension with additional construction on the site. She said she plans to issue a ruling later this week before the order expires. She had not yet controlled the venue’s questions.
