Federal Court Orders ICE to Provide People Detained Access to Legal Counsel at “Alligator Alcatraz” Detention Facility

FORT MYERS, FL – A federal court granted a preliminary injunction today that requires Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Florida Department of Emergency Management to provide access to legal counsel for people detained at the Everglades Detention Facility, commonly referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.” The ruling comes more than a month after the court heard oral arguments and client testimony during a two-day hearing, where people formerly detained at the Everglades Detention Facility described horrific conditions, being denied the opportunity to speak with an attorney, and even the denial of access to papers and pencils.

Specifically, the preliminary injunction issued by federal district judge Sheri Polster Chappell requires ICE to provide readily-available confidential outgoing legal calls to people detained at the facility, as well as publish information about how attorneys and people detained may contact one another. The order also states that ICE must continue their newly enacted policy of allowing attorneys to visit the facility without prescheduling visits, on behalf of the entire class. The court also certified the case as a class action, which means that it protects all people currently at the Everglades Detention Facility, and persons held there in the future.

Quotes from co-counsel and plaintiff organizations are as follows:

“Today’s ruling is a major victory and underscores what we’ve known to be true all along: access to legal counsel is a constitutional right – not a privilege – for all people in this country, and the State of Florida and ICE cannot lock people up with no way to speak to an attorney,” said Corene Kendrick, Deputy Director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We won’t stop fighting until this abusive facility is shut down once and for all.”

“Access to counsel is one of the most basic safeguards in our legal system,” said Paul R. Chavez, Director of Litigation & Advocacy at Americans at Immigrant Justice. “Today’s ruling reinforces the importance of meaningful access to legal counsel for people in immigration detention. Confidential communication with an attorney is essential to a fair legal process, and people navigating detention deserve a genuine opportunity to understand and exercise their rights. We will continue working to ensure these protections are fully implemented.”

“Access to an attorney is essential for people in immigration detention—especially at a time when we are witnessing due process being sidelined,” said Amy Godshall, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Florida. “As mass deportation policies expand and Florida deepens its use of 287(g) agreements, access to legal counsel is one of the last safeguards protecting people from unjust deportation or family separation. No one should have to fight deportation alone and without counsel from inside a detention center—it’s a basic constitutional right.”

"When a facility obstructs timely and confidential access to counsel, it makes meaningful legal representation virtually impossible,” said Katie Blankenship, Founder of Sanctuary of the South and an organizational plaintiff in this case. “That is not a minor barrier; it is a direct violation of due process. People are left to navigate life-altering immigration proceedings without the ability to communicate with their attorneys. This is unconstitutional and unacceptable. The Court correctly recognized that these policies are unlawful and are inflicting serious harm every day."