Judge orders Alligator Alcatraz detainees be given more access to their lawyers [View all]

Source: Miami Herald

March 27, 2026 8:51 PM


A federal judge issued a ruling Friday requiring the DeSantis administration and federal immigration officials to expand access for detainees to their lawyers at the Everglades detention facility, Alligator Alcatraz.

U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a 68-page ruling that partially granted a preliminary injunction request, allowing lawyers to visit their clients during visitation hours without a pre-scheduled appointment, increasing the number of phones available to each detainee and requiring the state to publish protocols for lawyer and detainee visits. The ruling also made the ongoing lawsuit against the DeSantis administration’s pop-up immigration detention facility a class action.

Chappell, however, sided with the state on the issue of unscheduled visits by immigration attorneys to the tent site. The civil rights lawyers representing the detainees in the lawsuit had argued that attorneys could not simply show up unannounced during visitation hours at the facility, a policy available at other immigration detention centers. The state provided evidence to the court at the last minute showing that it had changed its policy and lawyers did not need to preschedule an appointment — a move that Chappell said “blindsided Plaintiffs and the Court.”

Chappell, who was appointed to the bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama, questioned the timing of the evidence and testimony provided by government officials. She, however, agreed it was sufficient and ruled that the plaintiffs could not demonstrate a violation of First Amendment rights based on scheduling in-person visits.

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article315214162.html