Armed Guards Are Keeping Immigration Attorneys Out Of 'Alligator Alcatraz': Lawsuit

Immigration lawyers say it's been nearly impossible to communicate with clients who are at the remote facility.

Immigration attorneys have been barred from visiting clients at a remote Everglades detention facility and have limited means of contacting them, according to a new lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union and multiple immigration advocacy organizations.

“The government has banned in-person legal visitation, any confidential phone or video communication, and confidential exchange of written documents,” the ACLU noted in a Wednesday release announcing the suit, which it filed against the Trump administration.

These policies violate immigrants’ right to due process and right to communicate with legal counsel, the organization says. It and a number of legal groups are suing so detainees can be guaranteed a viable means of reaching their attorneys and contesting their detentions.

The suit comes amid reports of abysmal living conditions at the Everglades facility, including a lack of water for bathing, inedible food and rampant mosquito infestations, as well as growing concerns about how few legal protections detainees have.

As noted in the suit, immigration attorneys attempting to visit their clients onsite have waited for hours only to be turned away and given either a faulty email address or a visitation request form that requires them to submit documents for facility approval.