FORT MYERS, Fla. — A federal judge in Fort Myers heard testimony Wednesday from former detainees of Alligator Alcatraz, the state-run immigration detention facility located in the Everglades since 2025, as part of an ongoing civil rights lawsuit challenging conditions at the facility.
Former detainees and their immigration attorneys argue that their constitutional rights are being violated by state and federal governments because attorney-client conversations at Alligator Alcatraz are difficult to arrange and lack confidentiality.
WATCH: Former detainees testify about immigration facility conditions
Judge Shari Polster Chappell will decide whether the court should intervene on behalf of the detainees until the case is ultimately resolved.
Two former detainees testified remotely from their home countries of Colombia and Haiti. Both said they believed they were legally allowed to be in the United States when Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained them.
The Colombian national said he came to the U.S. on a work visa in 2022 and had a driver's license, work permit and pending asylum case. The Haitian national, who arrived in St. Thomas in 2024, said he also had a pending asylum application and temporary protected status.
President Donald Trump revoked temporary protected status for Haitians in November.
Both men testified they never spoke to an attorney while detained at Alligator Alcatraz and received no information on how to contact one, despite internal policies stating they are entitled to that information.
They said they were urged to sign documents, including voluntary deportation orders, that they couldn't understand, without time to consult an attorney.
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The detainees testified that the phones in their housing units were monitored and would often cut off the call at the mention of an attorney.
They said if a relative provided them with an attorney's phone number, they had to use soap to write it on a bed or wall because they were not allowed access to a pen and paper.
An ICE official from the Miami Field Office and a top official from the Nakamoto Group, the private contractor that arranges attorney visits at Alligator Alcatraz, also testified. They said policies at the facility meet ICE standards, that it is inspected at least every two weeks by ICE officials, and that it remains in compliance.
Mark Saunders, Nakamoto's executive vice president, testified that detainees were allowed to verbally request unmonitored phone calls to speak with an attorney, and that a guard would provide them with a cellphone.
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Saunders also mentioned an onsite law library that detainees should be allowed to access.
Practices have improved at Alligator Alcatraz in recent months, Saunders said, as attorneys who want to see their clients in person can now do so without requesting a visit ahead of time. He said there were no alternative polices that the court could impose that would improve attorney-client access without compromising security at the remote facility.
Hearings for this case continue Thursday morning.
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