By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for detainees at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades want a federal judge to make an unscheduled, in-person visit to the facility to see firsthand if they are getting sufficient access to their lawyers.
Attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell on Friday to make the visit within the next two months to help assess whether detainees are allowed to meet with their attorneys in a confidential and regular manner. The facility was built this summer at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.
The detainees’ federal lawsuit claims that their attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention facilities where lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys had made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees were unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
“Federal courts routinely conduct site visits as a valid fact-finding tool, especially in cases involving conditions of confinement,” the detainees’ attorneys wrote in their request.
But attorneys for the state of Florida “strenuously” objected to a visit, saying a federal judge doesn’t have authority to inspect a state facility and a visit would pose significant security risks.
“It would also impose a large burden on facility staff and significantly interrupt the facility’s operations,” attorneys for the state of Florida said.
As of Monday, the judge hadn’t ruled on the request.
The judge, who is based in Fort Myers, Florida, ordered the detainees’ lawyers and attorneys for the state and federal government to meet last week in an effort to resolve the case. But they were unable to reach a resolution despite nine hours of talks.
The case over access to the legal system is one of three federal lawsuits challenging practices at the immigration detention center. Another lawsuit brought by detainees in federal court in Fort Myers argues that immigration is a federal issue, and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility under federal law. A judge last week denied a request by the detainees for a preliminary injunction to close the facility.
In the third lawsuit, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open.
Detainees at the facility have complained about toilets that don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects that are everywhere. President Donald Trump toured the detention center last summer, suggesting it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration races to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations.
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