On Monday, a federal judge in Miami will hear arguments in a case over the controversial immigration detention center in the middle of the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz."
WATCH BELOW: 'Florida is taking up immigration law. Immigration is federally regulated,' Attorney Elizabeth Ricci tells Chief Investigative Reporter Jamie Ostroff
Detainees and their lawyers are seeking a preliminary injunction from Judge Rodolfo Ruiz, claiming their civil rights are being violated.
Attorney Elizabeth Ricci, who’s practiced immigration law for 25 years, is watching the case closely.
She said the way Florida is handling immigration enforcement has the potential to upend the practice of immigration law entirely. It’s why she left her job as an immigration law professor at Florida State University after the spring semester.
“I would have to reinvent all of the materials, because everything is changing so rapidly,” Ricci said.
Attorneys representing the detainees first filed suit in mid-July, after the detention facility was built on a remote air strip in the middle of the Everglades in a matter of days. They claimed there was an effective ban on attorney-client meetings after requests for meetings were going unanswered and lawyers were being turned away at the gates.
Since then, "Alligator Alcatraz" officials have allowed attorneys to visit their clients at the detention center in pre-scheduled meetings in person and via video call.
WATCH BELOW: 'Having seen the impacts already, it is hard to imagine that this won't be harmful,' Eve Samples tells WPTV
In updated filings, the plaintiffs have argued the video calls are not confidential. They also say the due process rights of the detainees are still being violated because detainees are disappearing from the federal immigration court systems while in state custody, leaving their cases in limbo.
The state and federal governments argue that Florida has the authority to do what it’s doing, under a law that allows federal immigration authorities to delegate some of their responsibilities to state law enforcement.
“I think every reasonable person agrees that our immigration system is broken. That's not the question,” Ricci said.
The question that concerns Ricci is how far those responsibilities can extend.
"Florida is taking up immigration law. Immigration is federally regulated,” Ricci said. “Florida will be kind of a test case for the rest of the country, to see to what extent can states get involved in immigration enforcement.”
WATCH BELOW: What a federal lawsuit reveals about the inner-workings of Alligator Alcatraz
During Monday's hearing, the plaintiff's lawyers are expected to ask Ruiz to order the defendants to define a federal immigration court that will have jurisdiction over the detainees in state custody.
Ruiz said during a video conference with both parties Thursday that he will first need to address the issue of whether the case will remain in his court.
The defendants are attempting to move the case to the Middle District of Florida, which includes Collier County. The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Florida, which includes Miami-Dade County. While the detention facility was built on an airfield in Collier County, the airfield is owned by Miami-Dade County.
On Thursday, Ruiz acknowledged "problems" with the case moving forward in his district, but acknowledged the urgency of the plaintiffs' claims and the time it would take to move the case to a different district.
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