Detainees arriving at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are given color-coded uniforms and wrist-bands and then segregated based on their criminal history and whether they’re considered a flight risk, according to a handbook given to detainees.
The handbook was included in court documents that are part of a lawsuit over whether the detainees are getting proper access to attorneys. The handbook presents strict rules on hygiene and dress, and portrays an environment inside the remote detention center that starkly contrasts with the deplorable conditions detainees described shortly after it opened in July.
The court case is one of three lawsuits filed by environmental and civil rights groups over conditions at the detention center, which was built this summer by the state of Florida and operated by private contractors and state agencies.
A federal judge in Miami ordered in August that the facility must wind down operations within two months, agreeing with environmental groups that the remote airstrip site wasn’t given a proper environmental review before it was converted into an immigration detention center. But operations continued after the judge’s preliminary injunction was put on hold in early September by an appellate court panel.
President Donald Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations.
Civil rights groups on Monday asked a federal judge in Fort Myers for an injunction that would stop the facility from holding detainees. They argued that federal law doesn’t allow state agencies or private contractors to carry out immigration detention since that’s a function of the Department of Homeland Security alone.
But the handbook submitted last week by the state of Florida suggests detainees are warned that guards would enforce strict rules on dress, hygiene, and behavior. Detainees must watch an orientation video upon arrival. They are allowed only to keep prayer books, glasses, dentures, wedding rings, and small personal religious items, and they wear sandals with their uniform. They’re given soap, shampoo, deodorant, and other personal items.
However, detainees reported in July that toilets sometimes don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste. During regular head counts, detainees aren’t allowed to move or talk. If they do, the entire dorm is punished.
In a separate court filing, a private contractor overseeing how detainees can access lawyers disputed the arguments of civil rights groups that detainees aren’t getting confidential access, claiming facilities have been provided for private attorney meetings. The handbook also emphasizes a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault.
