MIAMI (AP) \u2014 A federal judge in Miami has dismissed part of a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d and transferred the remaining case to a different jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz issued the decision late Monday, writing in a 47-page ruling that Fifth Amendment claims the detainees at the facility don\u2019t have confidential access to hearings in immigration court were rendered moot when the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North Processing Center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.<\/p>\n
The judge granted the state defendants a change of venue motion to the Middle District of Florida, where the remaining claims of First Amendment violations will be addressed. Those include allegations of delays in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and a lack of confidentiality when detainees are talking to their attorneys by phone or videoconference at the facility whose official name is the South Detention Facility.<\/p>\n
ACLU attorney Eunice Cho, the lead attorney for the detainees, said the federal government only reversed course last weekend and allowed the detainees to petition an immigration court because of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should not take a lawsuit to force the government to abide by the law and the Constitution,\u201d Cho said. \u201cWe look forward to continuing the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge heard arguments from both sides in a hearing earlier Monday in Miami. Civil rights civil rights attorneys were seeking a preliminary injunction<\/a> to ensure detainees at the facility have access to their lawyers and can get a hearing.<\/p>\n