Alligator Alcatraz inmates unite to sue Trump admin
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Alligator Alcatraz, Florida
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has officially filed a class-action lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration over lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people detained at Florida’s "Alligator Alcatraz.
Alligator Alcatraz, a migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, is surrounded by swamps infested with dangerous alligators and pythons.
“In most respects, ICE facilities operate with less consistent oversight and legal accountability than state or federal prisons or local jails,” Brinkley-Rubinstein said. “ICE detention facilities and people that run them tend to be much less transparent about their operations.”
The ACLU, ACLU of Florida and Americans for Immigrant Justice are working with detainees and other groups representing them, including Florida Keys Immigration, Sanctuary of the South, U.S. Immigration Law Counsel, Victoria Slatton of Sanabria & Associates, and the Law Offices of Catherine Perez, PLLC.
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It seems that the DeSantis administration just pulled more than a dozen contracts tied to the Everglades Immigration Detention facility from a public database of state contracts. These contracts total more than $200 million in taxpayer spending, and they are public records.
Investigates is learning more about the private company the state is paying millions to run Alligator Alcatraz.
The camp was first announced by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is DeSantis’ former chief of staff and was manager of the governor’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign, late last month.
In the depths of the Florida Everglades, a place teeming with mosquitoes, swamps, and predatory reptiles, the U.S. government has endorsed what many human rights activists now call the Alligator Alcatraz—a sprawling 39-square-mile detention facility for immigrants surrounded not only by steel fences,