A U.S. federal judge dismissed part of a key lawsuit over access to courts and legal services for migrants detained at Alligator Alcatraz, after the Trump Administration designated a processing center near Miami to hear the cases.
In his ruling, issued Monday night, U.S. Magistrate Rodolfo Ruiz of the Southern District of Florida said the charge was rendered moot when the U.S. government recently designated the Krome North processing center as the site for the detainees’ cases.
Deeming that he had nothing further to do in the matter, the judge ordered the case transferred to the Middle District of Florida, in charge of legal disputes in Collier County, where Alligator Alcatraz is located, although the facility is administered by neighboring Miami-Dade County.
“Defendants have publicly identified that Krome has jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz,” reads the ruling, which adds “the court can do no more.”
However, he added that the claim alleging a lack of confidential and prompt access to lawyers by detainees still stands.
The magistrate’s decision comes at the same time that another federal judge is reviewing a lawsuit by environmental groups against Alligator Alcatraz, which opened a month ago in the middle of Florida’s Everglades wilderness area.
Judge Kathleen Williams, also of the Southern District of Florida, suspended work at the center “immediately” for 14 days on August 7.
Alligator Alcatraz was opened in early July to hold up to 3,000 undocumented migrants prior to their removal from the United States.
However, the location of the facility, in the heart of the Everglades, and the conditions under which inmates live inside, have given rise to several lawsuits seeking to curb its activity.
Florida’s governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, has denied all these allegations, and recently announced the construction of another migrant detention center in an abandoned prison in the north of the state, according to EFE.
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