Lawyers question legality of Alligator Alcatraz, ask federal judge to intervene

[In It to Win It]

A federal judge in Miami is expected to hear arguments Monday from attorneys who say the Trump and DeSantis administrations are holding detainees at Alligator Alcatraz without charges and without access to immigration courts in violation of their constitutional rights.

Questioning the very legality of the state-run detention center, the attorneys said in a legal filing Friday that immigrants held at the site are unable to challenge their detention because there is no federal immigration court overseeing their cases – even though the complex of tents and trailers has been operating for nearly a month.

The plaintiffs, which include the American Civil Rights Union Foundation and Americans for Immigrant Justice, said judges at Krome Immigration Court in Miami are canceling court hearings because the court does not have jurisdiction over detainees at Alligator Alcatraz. They said ICE officers are also saying they aren’t responsible for detainees at the facility, which the DeSantis administration erected in eight days on a remote airfield in the Everglades.

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” they argued.

The outcome of Monday’s hearing before District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II could shed light on a question that attorneys have been asking since the Trump administration began sending immigrant detainees to Florida’s pop-up detention center on July 2: Who is in charge of detainees and their cases? The answer to that question could have wide-ranging implications as the Trump administration tries to replicate Alligator Alcatraz in other parts of the country.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article311473837.html