One of three federal court challenges to a detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” has ended after the detainee who filed it agreed to be removed from the United States, attorneys said.
The detainee, identified in court documents as M.A., asked a federal court in Fort Myers to dismiss his case on Monday, attorneys wrote in a court motion. In the motion, his attorneys stated, “Petitioner is no longer detained at Alligator Alcatraz, he has formally agreed to be removed, and he will soon have left the United States.”
Spencer Amdur of the American Civil Liberties Union said by phone Tuesday that M.A. would be returning to Chile.
The ended lawsuit alleged that immigration is a federal issue and that Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state lacked authority under federal law to operate the facility. It also alleged that people entering the center disappeared from the normal detainee tracking system and faced difficulty accessing legal help.
The “Alligator Alcatraz” case is one of three federal lawsuits challenging different aspects of the facility built last summer at a remote airstrip in the Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida began receiving its first detainees at the Everglades facility in July.
In another case, a federal judge in Miami ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had not completed a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. An appellate court panel put that order on hold, allowing the facility to stay open.
In the third lawsuit, detainees sought a ruling to ensure access to confidential communications with their attorneys. During an online meeting Tuesday, attorneys for the detainees and lawyers for the state and federal government defendants outlined plans for a hearing at the end of the month on a request for a preliminary injunction. ACLU attorneys said they would likely call former detainees living outside the United States to testify remotely.
Court documents described M.A. as married to a U.S. citizen and having five stepchildren who are U.S. citizens. The documents said he entered the United States in 2018 on a visa, later applied for asylum, and, before his arrest last July, had a work permit, a Social Security card and a driver’s license.
The documents also said that after his arrest but before he was sent to the Everglades facility, officers pressured him to sign an English-only form he did not understand, though officers later told him it was a voluntary removal form. During his time at the facility, the lawsuit said he was twice hospitalized and put in a wheelchair because of a condition in which he was unable to feel his legs, adding that he entered the facility able to walk.
Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Besides the Everglades facility, Florida has opened an immigration detention center in the northeastern part of the state and is looking at opening a third facility in the Panhandle.
CC0 Main Street Independent Newsroom License: This article is published under CC0. You may reuse and adapt it without attribution.