Two former detainees at Florida’s immigration detention facility in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” told a federal judge that they were punished for trying to reach attorneys, while civil rights lawyers urged the court to order the state to provide detainees with the same level of access to legal counsel available in federally run facilities.
The testimony came during a two-day hearing that began Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers, before U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell. The men, both of whom have since been deported to Colombia and Haiti, appeared via video from their home countries using translators and only their initials to protect their identities, according to testimony described in court.
Civil rights attorneys representing the former detainees sought a temporary injunction, arguing that state-run operations at the Everglades facility have left detainees with less access to lawyers than detainees in federal custody. Their lawsuit, filed in federal court, says the detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated and asks the judge to require changes to attorney visitation and communication practices.
The attorneys argued that detainees at the state-run Everglades facility must schedule attorney visits three days in advance, while lawyers at other immigration detention facilities can show up during visiting hours. They also said detainees are often transferred to other facilities before their attorneys’ appointments, and that scheduling delays can be so lengthy that detainees are unable to meet with lawyers before key deadlines in their cases.
During the hearing, one former detainee described paperwork he said he was pressured to sign without first meeting attorneys. The man, who had sought asylum in the United States, testified that while detained he was asked to sign documents he did not understand, which he said were later presented as papers to self-deport to Haiti. He then testified that he was given a second set of documents presented as a path to being self-deported to Mexico, which he said he signed because of fear of returning to Haiti; he said the outcome was that he was ultimately sent back to Haiti.
He told the court, “I had to sign the documents,” adding that he said he was “not able to speak first with attorneys… they forced me to do it.” The hearing also included testimony from a former detainee from Colombia, who said he tried to connect through monitored calls with relatives who could help him reach a lawyer, but that each time the call immediately dropped when he discussed getting an attorney.
In response to the detainees’ accounts, Mark Saunders, an official with a private contractor overseeing operations dealing with attorney communications at the Everglades facility, testified that detainees have been meeting with their lawyers. Saunders said that for at least the past six weeks the facility has mandated that no attorney would be turned away, and that written requests by attorneys are answered within 24 hours. He also told the court that cellphones are available for confidential calls.
Saunders and other officials disputed the claim that detainees faced restrictions designed to prevent legal help. The testimony described the state as citing security and staffing reasons for any difficulties and federal officials as denying that the detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated.
Another official named as a defendant, Juan Lopez Vega, deputy field office director of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations in Miami, testified after he unsuccessfully sought to quash a subpoena to appear in court. Vega testified that although his job included oversight of the state-run facility, he had visited the center once, when it was inaugurated in summer 2025, according to the court testimony described in the hearing coverage.
The “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center itself was built last summer at a remote airstrip, according to the testimony, as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. The case involving access to legal counsel was one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the detention center, including claims that immigration matters are federal issues and that Florida agencies and contractors hired by the state lacked authority to operate the facility under federal law. That lawsuit ended earlier this month after the person who filed it agreed to be deported from the United States, according to testimony described in court.
A third lawsuit involved environmental impact review. A federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to temporarily pause operations, but an appellate court panel put that decision on hold, allowing the facility to remain open while the legal proceedings continue.
In addition to the Everglades facility, other detention centers cited in the broader litigation scrutiny include ICE facilities at the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas; one in Miami; and facilities in California City and Adelanto in California. Neither the state attorneys nor federal attorneys in the case specified how many people are detained at the Everglades center, according to the testimony described in court.