Judge dismisses part of lawsuit over ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center

A federal judge in Miami has dismissed part of a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” and transferred the remaining case to a different jurisdiction.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz issued the decision late Monday, writing in a 47-page ruling that Fifth Amendment claims the detainees at the facility don’t have confidential access to hearings in immigration court were rendered moot when the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North Processing Center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.

The judge granted the state defendants a change of venue motion to the Middle District of Florida, where the remaining claims of First Amendment violations will be addressed. Those include allegations of delays in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and a lack of confidentiality when detainees are talking to their attorneys by phone or videoconference at the facility whose official name is the South Detention Facility.