Table of Contents
Donald Trump (2L), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (C), and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem … More
AFP via Getty Images
Immigration attorneys say they have been unable to see their clients sent to the Alligator Alcatraz detention facility in Florida. Donald Trump toured the state-run camp with Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and implied immigrants would be deterred from escaping because nearby alligators would eat them. In the haste to build and promote the facility, including by selling online merchandise, Florida and Trump officials neglected to provide access to attorneys and ensure detained immigrants could be located and meet with legal representatives to guarantee due process.
Immigration Attorneys Unable To See Clients At Alligator Alcatraz Facility
Attorneys with clients at Alligator Alcatraz, built in the Florida Everglades, criticize the lack of due process and access to counsel, and express concerns about the conditions. The Miami Herald described detainees suffering from mosquito bites, days without showers and “scant sunlight coming through the heavy-duty tents, making it difficult for them to know whether it is day or night.”
Two weeks have passed since a Florida Highway Patrol officer arrested the Honduran immigrant client of Magdalena Cuprys of Cuprys & Associates. “He was stopped at a weigh station in Tampa because he owns a construction company, and he was required to stop for his truck to be weighed,” Cuprys told me. “The client had a valid Florida driver’s license. The patrol officer called Customs and Border Protection on him. The client called me, and the officer took the phone from him and spoke with me.”
She asked why CBP was alerted. “I was advised that the client looked Hispanic, had a Hispanic name, and now they are collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP, and their orders are to call CBP any time they encounter anyone they suspect is an immigrant,” said Cuprys. “I asked if they would have followed the same process if it had been me driving, and the response was it depends if you look Hispanic.”
Her client was in the first group taken to Alligator Alcatraz. She filed a bond motion at Krome Detention Center, which has an immigration court. “The motion has not been processed by the court as the clerk advised me that the only information they had about the process for clients detained at Alligator Alcatraz was what they learned independently from the news,” said Cuprys.
Her associate, Victor Martinez, spent all day at the Alligator Alcatraz facility and attempted to meet with their client. “We were advised that they had no instructions on how to handle attorney visits,” said Cuprys. “He was first told to wait, and he did so for hours.” They finally told him to come back the next day, and perhaps he would have “better luck.”
At the Krome Detention Center in Miami, immigration attorneys can meet with clients at most times of the day in person or via secure private video calls.
“My client has been detained for two weeks now, and I understand he doesn’t have status, but he’s not a criminal,” said Cuprys. “And he applied for status before he was detained. He had a valid driver’s license, and no one can tell me who has jurisdiction over him. My concern is that they’re just going to ship him out and he’s never going to have a court hearing.” Her client is married and has lived in the United States for approximately two decades.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about providing access to attorneys at Alligator Alcatraz.
Immigration Clients May Be Lost Between State And ICE Custody
Chelsea M. Nowel of Dubrule & Nowel also has sought to contact her client. “My client was transferred to the Alligator Alcatraz facility after being picked up from an ICE hold,” she said in an interview. “Since his transfer, I have been unable to schedule any contact with him. I have reached out to the Krome Detention Center, and they advised me that they have no information on the new facility as of yet.”
Her client has not appeared in the immigration court system, so there is no way for Nowel to request a bond. The client, originally from Mexico, has lived in the United States for 18 years and has a U.S. citizen daughter. He has two arrests for Driving Under the Influence, 20 years apart, the most recent resulting in a hold for ICE. “When I was originally called, he was still on the ICE hold, and then he disappeared, and we got nothing,” said Nowel.
She knows her client is in Alligator Alcatraz because he spoke to his wife after his arrival. Nowel is concerned that with no information on who has jurisdiction over her client, he could be denied due process. “They’re talking about putting National Guard troops or maybe JAG [Judge Advocate General] officers in as immigration judges,” she said. Nowel questions how such individuals will function as fair immigration judges without intensive training in immigration law.
Workers install a permanent Alligator Alcatraz sign on July 3, 2025. The facility is within the … More
TNS
Due Process Concerns Mount For Immigration Attorneys Amid Widespread Profiling
Immigration attorney Amanda Velazquez has four clients in Alligator Alcatraz. Her clients, three from Nicaragua and one from Mexico, have no arrests other than those arrested for driving without a license. They live in the Florida Keys and have asylum claims and work permits. Two of the clients managed to call her from the Alligator Alcatraz facility.
“I’m concerned about their well-being, access to legal counsel and ability to have due process,” said Velazquez. She wants them in front of a judge as soon as possible to see if they can be released on bond and continue with their asylum cases. The clients told her, “The mosquitoes are really bad.”
Velazquez is concerned about an expedited removal scenario where ICE pressures her clients to give up their asylum claims, despite the poor human rights conditions in Nicaragua. The client from Mexico has an asylum case with an appeal pending.
The significant increase in ICE’s detention capacity after Congress passed the reconciliation bill raises the issue of whether keeping people in poor conditions will be used to encourage them to relinquish their asylum or other claims. That is one reason Velazquez wants to get her clients out on bond.
Velazquez believes ICE is profiling immigrant workers. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller ordered ICE to meet arrest quotas of 3,000 a day, which requires them to pick up mostly immigrant workers, not people with criminal convictions.
Her clients drove in vehicles for landscaping, painting and pool maintenance. “All of them were in one way or another going to or from work,” said Velazquez. “They weren’t committing any traffic violations. It was ICE here in Key West, looking to see who fits a certain profile. And that’s happening every single day.”
She said ICE stopped the vehicles because they contained Hispanics going to work.
“I can probably give you at least a dozen more cases like that with the same scenario. They’re just looking for those vehicles. In Key West, there are a lot of Nicaraguan nationals who have asylum cases pending, with valid work authorizations, valid driver’s licenses, who are lawfully employed.” One client was arrested while pumping gas. An ICE officer arrested him even though he had valid work authorization documents.
“I’m seeing all kinds of incidents where people are getting asked for their identification when there is absolutely no crime being committed and no investigation of any crime, just pulling people over and or walking up to people going to and from work,” said Velazquez. “I can’t tell you how many people have been stopped riding their bike here in Key West and taken into custody.”
The latest employment statistics show the Trump administration’s policies, which include blocking refugee admissions and ending legal status for many nationalities, are harming the labor supply and the economy. “The real headline from the recent jobs report should be the falling labor force,” said labor economist Mark Regets, a senior fellow at the National Foundation for American Policy. The foreign born in the U.S. labor force have declined by 735,000 since January 2025, according to an NFAP analysis of data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Immigration attorneys are concerned Florida will rebuild the airstrip at the Alligator Alcatraz facility. “Then, they’ll just be able to fast-track a deportation order and go to an immediate removal by flight,” said Chelsea Nowel. “That would make it impossible for people to file an appeal. Those small amounts of bureaucracy are checks and balances to make sure that the government is deporting the right person to the right place. It ensures due process.”