DOJ lawyers admit some 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees probably never entered removal proceedings
Source: LA Times
Oct. 6, 2025 Updated 12:05 PM PT
ORLANDO, Fla. — U.S. government lawyers say that detainees at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” probably include people who have never been in removal proceedings, which is a direct contradiction of what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been saying since it opened in July.
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice made that admission Thursday in a court filing arguing that the detainees at the facility in the Everglades wilderness don’t have enough in common to be certified as a class in a lawsuit over whether they’re getting proper access to attorneys.
A removal proceeding is a legal process initiated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to determine if someone should be deported from the United States. The Justice Department attorneys wrote that the detainees at the Everglades facility have too many immigration statuses to be considered a class.
“The proposed class includes all detainees at Alligator Alcatraz, a facility that houses detainees in all stages of immigration processing — presumably including those who have never been in removal proceedings, those who will be placed into removal proceedings, those who are already subject to final orders of removal, those subject to expedited removal, and those detained for the purpose of facilitation removal from the United States pursuant to a final order of removal,” they wrote.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-10-06/doj-contradicts-desantis-some-detainees-at-alligator-alcatraz-likely-never-in-removal-proceedings
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