A federal judge on Monday narrowed a lawsuit against the Florida immigration detention site known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” giving the Trump administration a partial victory while allowing some claims against it to continue.
U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, who serves in the Southern District of Florida and was appointed by President Donald Trump, dismissed detainees’ Fifth Amendment claims on Monday in light of the administration designating the Krome immigration court in Miami to oversee their cases. Ruiz concluded that the move made their due process arguments moot.
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“This is a classic case of mootness,” Ruiz wrote in a 47-page decision. “The Fifth Amendment claim is premised entirely on the contention that ‘Defendants have failed to identify which immigration court has jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz.'”
During oral arguments earlier in the day, Ruiz pressed attorneys for the detainees on exactly what they wanted from the court. Plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Immigrant Justice, had sought a preliminary injunction requiring confidential and timely access to lawyers.
“You’d have to have some metric,” Ruiz said, voicing concern about crafting an enforceable order.
ACLU attorney Eunice Cho countered that the government had “run roughshod over constitutional concerns” by rushing to open the facility in July without ensuring attorney access. Plaintiffs alleged that detainees were held “incommunicado” for weeks, claiming one was wrongly deported before contacting counsel and that another, a mentally disabled man, was coerced into signing a voluntary departure form.
Federal attorneys, by contrast, argued that the lawsuit was less about attorney access and more about undermining immigration detention itself. Ruiz echoed that concern, describing the First Amendment claims as “almost a Trojan horse” masking broader challenges to detention policy.
Although Ruiz left open the detainees’ First Amendment claims, he sided with both federal and state officials that the case belongs in Florida’s Middle District, where the Everglades facility is located. That means any continuing litigation will shift to a different court.
State attorneys argued that the access problems had already been resolved, with detainees able to meet with lawyers in recent weeks.
“Plaintiffs would have Your Honor go to Alligator Alcatraz and become the warden,” said Nick Meros, an attorney for the state.
JUDGE SKEPTICAL OF LAWSUIT OVER ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ DETAINEES’ LEGAL ACCESS
The lawsuit is one of two major challenges to the site.
In a separate case, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, temporarily halted further construction after environmental groups argued that the government failed to conduct required reviews before breaking ground on the remote airstrip. That pause is set to expire this week.