H.C.R.. v. Noem

Immigrants’ rights advocates sued the Trump administration over lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people detained at Florida’s new, notorious Everglades immigration center, a hastily constructed facility on an abandoned airstrip in the middle of the wetlands in Ochopee.

The facility, cruelly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is built out of temporary tents, trailers, and chain-link fences with barbed wire. It is surrounded by alligators, pythons, mosquitos, and swampland, and is at risk of dangerous flooding. Around the time of our filing, approximately 700 people were detained there, and the facility has the capacity to detain at least 3,000. No protocols existed at this facility for providing basic, confidential attorney-client communication. Detainees only had access to infrequent pay phone calls that were timed, monitored, and recorded. Additionally, many detainees were eligible for release on bond but had no access to bond hearings.

This class-action case was brought by detainees held at the facility and legal service providers and law firms with clients held at the site, including Sanctuary of the South and Bilbao Law, LLC. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, and Americans for Immigrant Justice.

The Latest: On March 27, 2026, the court granted a preliminary injunction, provisionally certified the class, and ordered the federal and state government to provide meaningful access to counsel for everyone detained there.