A U.S. district judge on Monday ordered federal and state officials in Florida to release documents showing which groups have legal authority to detain people or perform immigration officer duties at the newly constructed “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades.
The order was in response to a class action lawsuit filed July 16 by four detainees and a detainee’s attorney—backed by three immigration law firms and homelessness non-profit Sanctuary of the South—on behalf of all persons currently held or to be held in the future at the facility. Two of the detainees are identified in court documents as Cuban nationals, and two are in the country with pending asylum or alien relative I-130 applications….