From Palm Beach Post/USA Today:
Federal judge rejects Florida's arguments about 'Alligator Alcatraz'
A federal judge rejected Florida's argument that a prior order mandating better attorney access for detainees at Alligator Alcatraz forced "court-ordered" speech and was costly.
In a recent four-page order, U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell cast down the state's last-ditch effort to avoid enforcing an order that prompts them to allow timely, confidential, unmonitored and unrecorded access to attorneys.
This was the crux of a free speech argument raised by detainees of Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial temporary immigrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades, whose official name is the South Florida Detention Facility.
"State Defendants had ample opportunity to brief their legal arguments and introduce evidence before the Court ruled on the motion for preliminary injunction and—for whatever reason—chose not to do so," the judge wrote in a May 11 order. "Their propensity to raise eleventh hour arguments is inefficient and unavailing."
The judge's order comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis' attorneys argued in late April that all of the facility's public postings are government speech, which is a doctrine in First Amendment law affirming the state's rights to advance its views without having to provide a platform for opposing ones. The state argued it shouldn't need to post online any protocols for access to counsel.
Additionally, the judge's order required one telephone per 25 detainees at the facility, which the state argued is costly. Attorneys said purchasing more cell phones and equipment, along with paying staff to handle the installation, would cost $180,025. Alligator Alcatraz was estimated to cost about $450 million for a single year.
Pressure from attorneys representing detainees have amped up as well in recent weeks after phones were reportedly turned off in early April, and detainees who complained received beatings.
More: Alligator Alcatraz alleged beatings, pepper spray. What we know
A request for comment is pending with the governor's press office. But the order comes days after the governor said the facility was "always designed to be temporary," following reports that federal and state officials were preliminarily discussing to shut it down.
DeSantis said that with new leadership, the department is reevaluating its costs and "what their footprint is," and that there were no definitive plans yet on shutting down the facility. He noted that he didn't think the president would release people back into the community, so he expected that if a shut down were to happen then the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would have a plan for where to relocate detainees.
"It served a good purpose. We're totally willing to continue that happening in the future," DeSantis said in a May 7 press conference in Lakeland.
The lawsuit raised by detainees and organizations, including legal services organization Sanctuary of the South, was first filed in August in the Middle District of Florida. It's one of multiple lawsuits against the facility, which ultimately seek to have the facility closed.
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at SMatat@usatodayco.com. On X: @stephanymatat.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Judge rejects 'Alligator Alcatraz' arguments
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