ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to close an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alcatraz,” saying a detainee seeking the order had not shown he suffered irreparable harm at the facility.
U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek said the detainee, referred to as MA in court documents, did not meet the high burden required for a preliminary injunction while his challenge to the facility is being filed in federal court in Fort Myers, Florida.
“While it is true that Alcatraz may have deficiencies that ultimately justify its dissolution, plaintiffs have not made the extraordinary showing necessary to justify immediate relief of this magnitude,” said Dudek, who was nominated by President Donald Trump.
The Massachusetts lawsuit is one of three federal lawsuits challenging the practices of the immigration detention center, which was built this summer at a remote airport in the Florida Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
His lawsuit claims immigration is a federal issue and that Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state do not have the authority to operate the facility under federal law. Detainees entering the facility disappear from the normal detainee tracking system and have difficulty obtaining legal help, the lawsuit says.
“The statute requires federal control of all authorized law enforcement activities. Yet Florida asserts that it has complete control over detention decisions,” Ma said in the preliminary injunction request.
The judge said he was being cautious in denying the request because “plaintiffs are essentially asking the court to shut down a large and expensive detention facility, all before any decision is made regarding its legality.”
In a separate case, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the facility to cease operations within two months because officials failed to conduct a review of the detention center’s environmental impact. But an appeals court panel temporarily put that decision on hold, allowing the facility to remain open.
In a third lawsuit, detainees sought a ruling ensuring they could communicate confidentially with lawyers. They claim that detainees’ attorneys must schedule visits three days in advance, unlike other detention centers where attorneys can only appear during visiting hours; that detainees are often transferred to other facilities after their attorneys schedule appointments; and that scheduling delays are so long that detainees cannot meet with attorneys before critical deadlines.
A federal judge in the case ordered attorneys for the detainees and state and federal defendants to meet Tuesday to resolve the case. But they informed the court on Wednesday that despite nine hours of negotiations, a solution could not be reached.
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