ACLU Comment on Asylum Agreement in Family Separation Challenge

MIAMI — Immigrants’ rights advocates applaud the announced closure of the notorious Everglades detention center, cruelly dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” known for the horrific and unsafe conditions faced by immigrants being held there. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the closure during a press conference today, just days after reports emerged that people detained at the facility were being transferred to other ICE detention facilities ahead of hurricane season. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, and Americans for Immigrant Justice had sued over the facility last July, challenging the lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people held there. The site is a hastily constructed facility on an abandoned airstrip in the middle of the wetlands in Ochopee. It was built out of shoddy tents and trailers, and surrounded by alligators, pythons, mosquitos, and swampland, and at serious risk of dangerous flooding. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of detainees held there, on behalf of a class, and legal service providers with clients there. While pleased with news of the detention center’s permanent closure, the groups also urge caution. “The fact that this site ever existed is a travesty, given the cruelty behind it, horrific conditions, and blatant violations of due process. We challenged the Trump administration and the State of Florida over the facility, and now celebrate its closure,” said Carmen Iguina González, deputy director for immigration detention with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “However, the nightmarish scene found at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is not wholly unique and reflects systemic patterns of abuse at other ICE detention facilities nationwide. We remain very concerned that people may be transferred to other sites with sordid and dangerous conditions, and we will continue to monitor this situation.” “With its official closure, 'Alligator Alcatraz' seals its reputation as a ruinous venture. This detention center stands as a monument to what happens when a state government abandons its conscience in service of a federal cruelty agenda. The DeSantis administration deliberately built a detention facility in the middle of the Everglades — not despite the harsh conditions, but because of them — and spent over $1 billion of Florida taxpayers' money to do it,” said Keisha Mulfort, deputy executive director and strategy officer of the ACLU of Florida. “That is not governance; that is cruelty dressed up as policy, and complicity dressed up as leadership. In spite of this, hundreds of thousands of Floridians protested, organized, called their legislators, and refused to look away. They made this moment possible, and we should name that clearly: this is what accountability looks like when the government won't hold itself accountable. As people are transferred to other facilities, the abuses do not disappear — they relocate. The ACLU of Florida will follow. We will not allow this administration, or any administration, to simply shuffle the harm out of sight and call it progress. Our vigilance does not end with a closure. It deepens.” “Closing this facility is an important step, but the government's obligation to respect due process does not end at the facility gates. Constitutional rights must follow every person wherever they are detained," said Paul R. Chavez, Director of Litigation & Advocacy at Americans for Immigrant Justice. "These failures are not an isolated case — they reflect systemic failures throughout our immigration detention system. We remain deeply concerned that people transferred out of this facility will continue to face mistreatment and civil rights violations in other detention centers. Americans for Immigrant Justice will continue to defend due process, offer free legal representation to low-income immigrants and stand strong with our immigrant neighbors, friends, and their families.” This press release is here: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/immigrants-rights-advocates-applaud-permanent-closure-of-everglades-detention-center-cruelly-dubbed-alligator-alcatraz  

Hundreds of people at an immigration facility in New Jersey protested spoiled food, medical neglect, and other inhumane conditions. They were joined by people detained in horrific conditions across the country.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The MacArthur Justice Center, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California (ACLU NorCal) filed a FOIA lawsuit against U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to demand the disclosure of policies and documents relating to their practices of targeting and retaliating against people who film federal agents in public. “People in a democracy have the right to document what armed federal agents are doing on the streets of their cities, and to share that video without fear of arrest or retribution,” said Jonathan Manes, senior counsel at the MacArthur Justice Center. "Video of police misconduct has been a core part of American political life since at least the civil rights era, when images of police brutalizing peaceful protestors shocked the nation’s conscience. The federal Government has adopted widespread practices that appear designed to stifle this kind of free speech. The public has a right to know the nature and extent of DHS’s effort to target people who dare to film its agents deployed on our streets.” Federal courts have repeatedly affirmed the right to film law enforcement in public and to disseminate the footage. But a startling pattern of retaliation against people exercising that right has emerged: federal agents have threatened and harassed individuals engaged in recording and publishing videos of immigration agents conducting their work in public; surveilled them; and even detained and arrested them. DHS has also issued administrative subpoenas to third-party tech companies like Google and Reddit demanding access to private information about people who record and publish video footage of ICE agents. Despite DHS’s clear pattern of abuse, there is a basic lack of transparency about the DHS policies, directives, and legal interpretations that have enabled this widespread practice. The public is also in the dark about how frequently DHS has used its arrest and subpoena authorities to target people who film agents. “It’s often been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant,” said Byul Yoon, legal fellow with the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the ACLU. “Recording federal agents allows the people to hold the government accountable for abuses of power and misconduct, and the First Amendment guarantees our ability to do so. The pattern of retaliation, as well as the secrecy around the government’s policies, is deeply alarming: a government that fears a phone camera, or a FOIA request, is one that has something to hide. Our democracy deserves better.” In November 2025, the ACLU and ACLU NorCal submitted a FOIA request to DHS, CBP, ICE, and USCIS for access to public records that would answer these and related questions, including policies, legal memos, and training materials. Over six months later, the government has not released a single document in response or explained why any of the materials are properly kept secret. This flouts the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which exists to guarantee prompt public access to information about what the government is doing. The lawsuit can be viewed here.

WASHINGTON – The House passed a reconciliation bill today that would provide an additional $70 billion in taxpayer funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol without any meaningful reforms to limit violent and abusive tactics by federal agents. The vote comes just days after the Senate voted to pass the bill and after a months-long standoff between members of Congress over whether to include reforms in any bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol, prompting Republicans in Congress to bypass normal procedures and use an obscure hyper partisan process called reconciliation. During that time, more than half a million people joined the ACLU in urging their members of Congress to reject any blank checks for ICE and Border Patrol’s lawlessness. In response to this news, Kate Voigt, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction: “It is unconscionable that the House would vote to write yet another blank check for ICE and Border Patrol’s campaign of chaos without any reforms. Over the past several months we’ve seen these abusive agencies kill our neighbors, harass and racially profile people, and tear thousands of families apart. “Once again, the House has shown that it is more committed to standing in President Trump’s good graces than fighting for the needs of the constituents they were elected to represent. The ACLU – and the more than half a million supporters who wrote their members of Congress to demand they reject this bill – will not forget how our members of Congress chose to abandon that responsibility.”