Alligator Alcatraz

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams previously ordered the facility to wind down operations, but that injunction was put on hold by an appellate court panel.

A public records lawsuit filed Monday by Friends of the Everglades says this led to a false impression before an appellate court panel, which put on hold a judge's order to wind down operations at the facility.

The U.S. Department of Justice made this admission Thursday in a court filing. They argue that detainees don't have enough in common to be certified as a class in a lawsuit over access to attorneys.

The state of Florida has secured $608 million in federal reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for opening and operating "Alligator Alcatraz," the controversial immigration detention in the Everglades, WPLG Local 10 News reported Thursday.

Detainees arriving at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades are given color-coded uniforms and segregated based on criminal history and flight risk. That is according to a handbook made public as part of a lawsuit over attorney access at the site known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Attorneys on behalf of a dozen U.S. House Democrats Thursday pushed for a federal judge to force the Trump administration to comply with an appropriations law that allows for unannounced oversight visits at Department of Homeland Security facilities that detain immigrants.

The Republican Party of Florida has sold more than $125,000 in merchandise branded with "Alligator Alcatraz." The state's Democratic Party said the GOP is profiting from people's suffering.

Sunday's protest, now in its eighth week, comes amid new reports of alleged medical neglect, violations of attorney-client privilege, and a large number of detainees who have all but disappeared from official federal records.

Some of the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic bishops and nuns on the front lines of America's immigration conflict gathered in Washington to decry the Trump administration's hard-line policies. The religious leaders condemned Trump's immigration crackdown, saying its tearing apart families, inciting fear and upending American church life.

The filings say detainees are often transferred just before scheduled lawyer visits, denying them legal representation. The new court papers were filed a week after a federal appellate court allowed the facility to continue operations by staying a lower court's injunction ordering the center to wind down.

Last week his administration won an interim victory when an appellate court panel halted a lower court's order to shut down the facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz." Now Florida may be forced to choose between forgoing federal reimbursement for the detention center or accepting the money and facing an environmental review that would risk shutting down the facility.

“This ruling is a setback for human rights," said Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights, in a statement issue Friday morning.