PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Newly-obtained court documents reveal new details into the operations inside Alligator Alcatraz, the country’s first state-run migrant detention facility.
WATCH BELOW: What a federal lawsuit reveals about the inner-workings of Alligator Alcatraz
At the core of the federal civil rights lawsuit, immigration attorneys claim they have struggled to access their clients detained at Alligator Alcatraz. Recent developments include a series of court filings that reveal the state’s authority to operate the facility and the frequency of attorney-client meetings.
Who's in charge?
In response to a federal court order regarding the responsibilities at Alligator Alcatraz, attorneys representing the State of Florida disclosed that the Florida government has made specific arrangements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, allowing state law enforcement officers to perform certain federal immigration duties. These responsibilities include interrogations, arrests, issuing immigration detainers, and the custody of immigration detainees.
According to the disclosed Memorandums of Agreement, those immigration enforcement powers have been granted to 11 different state agencies, ranging from the Florida Department of Corrections and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, as well as the Florida Lottery. Notably, an agreement regarding the custody of immigration detainees was amended recently, with an addendum specifying that the state is authorized to operate the detention facility, while requiring oversight from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
What is the plan for Alligator Alcatraz?
In the court filings, ICE officials told the judge the facility is designed for short-term stays, holding people only until long-term housing or removal arrangements can be made. ICE said the 2,000-bed facility is supposed to “decompress” other detention centers nationwide.
Attorneys told the Scripps News Group the capacity problems go far beyond the state’s four ICE detention centers. One of which, Krome Detention Center in Miami, was at one time housing nearly three times its intended capacity.
Richard Hujber, an attorney based in Boynton Beach, Florida, says that smaller Border Patrol stations across Florida are keeping detainees for days. He said he had one client stay somewhere for four nights when the facility is supposed to hold people for a few hours, which has made it more difficult to locate clients.
WATCH BELOW: New docs show various state agencies operate inside Alligator Alcatraz
“That’s a place you interrogate people for hours, not necessarily keep somebody overnight,” Hujber said. “You don’t even know they’re there, because by the time you figure it out, they’re on the way somewhere else. They’re like a transfer station.”
The court records also reveal ICE’s official name for the site: the South Florida Soft-Sided Facility South.
ICE also told the court it can recommend who should be housed at Alligator Alcatraz, but the final decision rests with the State of Florida. It also said it houses people who are at various stages in the immigration process, contradicting officials who claimed only people on final deportation orders were at the site.
ICE said its role at the facility is limited to inspections, meetings, and a single site tour to ensure it meets standards.
The Scripps News Group has reached out to U.S. Border Patrol for comment and is still awaiting a response.
Can detainees access their lawyers?
In additional filings, the state contradicted claims made in the lawsuit about attorneys not being able to meet with their clients. They filed hundreds of pages of emails between unnamed detention facility employees and attorneys, indicating that visits have been scheduled both in person and via Zoom.
A declaration from a contractor that oversees attorney-client visits at Alligator Alcatraz states that the facility can accommodate up to 40 in-person meetings per day and is working to expand its capacity. The declaration also states that the facility has held 68 in-person meetings since they started offering them in late July.
"The Facility has not rejected a single request for an in-person meeting since the meetings began. To date, no detainee or attorney has raised an issue with any aspect of the in-person meetings to Facility staff," the declaration said. “Currently, there is not a backlog of unaddressed meeting requests.”
The Scripps News Group has spoken with immigration attorneys, including several whose names appear in the emails, who say that they still face challenges when it comes to visiting clients.
Lawyers are instructed to email "legal@privacy6.com" to arrange visits with their clients. The court filings state that initially, staff at the facility didn't have access to that inbox, but officials are working to give multiple employees access to ensure a quicker response.
"I haven't gotten an answer back, but I'm hoping that there's some progress," attorney Maribel Piza said on Wednesday. "Even though maybe it's a little slower than we would like."
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Piza said she still has not visited with any of her four clients at Alligator Alcatraz, in person or via video call.
Attorney Yaniv Nahon, who did manage to schedule a visit, said he was initially turned away by armed guards at the gate when he arrived. He told the Scripps News Group the guards asked him to provide the name of the person who granted him the visit, even though messages sent from the "legal" email address are just signed, "Respectfully, Southern Detention Coordination Team."
"It seemed like the procedures were very much still getting up and running," Nahon said Friday. "Even at the gate, the Florida National Guard didn't even know they were allowing visitors. So at first when I pulled up... it took close to an hour just before they got the person out there to confirm that the visit would be happening."
The court filings were sealed Friday afternoon after the state informed the judge that they were submitted by mistake.
What's next?
With the basic facts of the case in dispute, the plaintiffs were ordered Thursday night to provide specific information regarding visitation attempts, with a Friday deadline. As of 5:30 p.m. Friday, that information has not been filed.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 18.
This article was written by Jamie Ostroff and Ethan Stein for the Scripps News Group in West Palm Beach.
