Immigrants held at Florida Everglades’ detention center are suing the Trump and DeSantis administrations

People held in Florida’s immigrant detention center in the Everglades sued the Trump and DeSantis administrations on Wednesday, demanding access to their attorneys.

This class action from the detainees and their attorneys adds to the mounting legal opposition to the detention center, where people started arriving two weeks ago after a speedy eight-day construction at an old airstrip.

Since detainees’ transfer to the state-run detention center, attorneys have had to wait hours in their attempts to visit the site, only to be barred from entering, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida states. Detainees held at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport lack a way to communicate confidentially with their legal representation as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, it adds.

Four detainees and their legal representatives are asking a federal court to require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Florida to provide access for in-person visits and unmonitored calls.

“What’s happening here is not just a policy failure, it’s a moral one,” said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, which is representing the plaintiffs. “The state has hastily erected a costly and deadly shadow prison in the middle of the Everglades during hurricane season to warehouse human beings — stripping them of due process and dignity, cutting them off from their families and legal counsel, intentionally putting their lives in danger, and leaving them to suffer in silence.”

The tent and trailer detention center is in a legal limbo, with the federal government disavowing responsibility for the detainees and the DeSantis administration insisting that it’s not a correctional institution. Its existence outside the federal and state systems — the Florida Division of Emergency Management is in charge — has made it extremely difficult for attorneys to locate detainees and file motions on their behalf.

Florida Republicans have labeled the center “Alligator Alcatraz” and are selling branded merchandise to raise campaign money.

Complaint outlines detention conditions

Gov. Ron DeSantis defended conditions at the detention center during a Wednesday morning press conference in Tampa, during which he appointed Blaise Ingoglia, an ally in the state Senate, as Florida’s chief financial officer.

“Remember, this is not the Ritz-Carlton, okay. We’re not doing this just to let people have food and shelter, although they do get that. All the minimum standards are upheld, but the reality is it’s there to be a quick processing center.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, and Americans for Immigrant Justice represent the plaintiffs in the case against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its leadership, DeSantis, and DEM director Kevin Guthrie.

So far, the state has lacked transparency about the number of people at the detention center, and the most detailed information has come from the Miami Herald, which published a list on Sunday of 750 detainees housed there, including more than 250 people without criminal convictions or pending charges in this country.

Although the lawsuit focuses on the detainees’ lack of access to attorneys and due process, the complaint details conditions detainees have described at the site, ranging from flooding inside tents and having to go days without showering to guards’ excessive use of force and denial of medication.

Michael Borrego Fernandez, a Cuban man taken to the detention center in the Everglades on July 5, is one of the plaintiffs. The complaint states he had to undergo emergency surgery at a local hospital on July 11 because of excessive bleeding while he was at the detention center. Staff didn’t give Borrego Fernandez the antibiotics prescribed following the surgery, his family told his attorneys.

Miami-Dade County law enforcement arrested Borrego Fernandez on July 5 over a parole violation involving outstanding traffic violations, and his family is working with his attorneys to seek his deportation to Cuba because of the conditions at the detention center.

Dismissing the claims in the lawsuit, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded: “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States, and yet all they do is complain.”

At the same time, the detention center is at the center of two additional lawsuits: One from environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida seeking to halt the site’s operation in the fragile ecosystem, and another from state Democratic lawmakers demanding oversight authority to conduct visits.

DEM and a spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to Florida Phoenix’s request for comment.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2025.