‘A black hole': Attorneys say they still can't reach clients in Alligator Alcatraz
She waited two and a half hours, only to be told to put her name on a list and to wait between 24 and 48 hours for a call back.
'These folks have due process and the right to counsel,' Blankenship told the employee manning the gate on July 10. 'They cannot be denied counsel for this long and we cannot have a black hole of information where we do not know how to contact clients.'
That call has yet to come.
Nearly two weeks since the site opened, lawyers say Florida's pop-up detention facility has been something of a black box, with detainees going in and little information coming out, except for outgoing calls from the facility.
Detainees taken to the seized county property in the Big Cypress National Preserve fall out of a federal immigration database created to help families and lawyers locate migrants who are in custody. Attorneys have struggled to schedule legal visitations with their clients, despite the state's public assurances that they can be set up. Lawyers say it's not even clear where to file legal briefs due to muddiness about whether detainees are in the custody of the state or federal government, which has claimed the DeSantis administration has final say on who is brought to the site.
The Herald/Times spoke with seven attorneys who have clients at the facility. They said the need for transparency and legal access is urgent, as the state says detainees are sent to the site to be processed and be quickly deported from an on-site airstrip. But so far, lawyers are having trouble finding phone numbers and emails associated with the site — at least ones that lead to responses.
'I've called, I've emailed everybody and their grandmother and their grandmother's sister. Nobody emails you back and nobody calls you back,' Atara Eig, a seasoned immigration attorney based in Miami, said in an interview Monday.
Stephanie Hartman, a spokeswoman with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is overseeing operations at Alligator Alcatraz, said in an email that detainees have 'regular access to phone and video calls with their attorneys and family members upon request.'
'These are federal detainees held in a state facility, and therefore, attorneys should follow their normal representation procedures as they have full access to their clients,' Hartman said. 'The purpose of the facility is to stage illegal immigrants for deportation, as has been repeatedly stated.'
Attorneys of detainees can email, legal@privacy6.com, to schedule appointments, Hartman said.
On Sunday afternoon – a week and a half after the first detainees arrived – one attorney emailed that address and an automated reply said, in part: 'Your message wasn't delivered because the recipient's email provider rejected it.' A few hours later, the attorney sent another email to the same address, and received a response Monday with a form to fill out to set up a legal visitation. The visit hasn't happened yet. She was scheduled to have a bond hearing for her client Tuesday afternoon and had not been able to prepare him as of Tuesday morning.
The Herald/Times emailed the address on Monday afternoon and about two hours later received the following message:
'As we continue to develop and expand direct legal access resources at the facility, please be assured that we are working diligently to ensure timely, secure, and reliable attorney-client communication. We recognize the importance of these interactions and are committed to continuously improving the systems that support them. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding as we enhance our processes to better serve both legal counsel and the individuals in our care.'
To date, it is unclear whether any family members or attorneys have been able to visit detainees in person.
When asked how many visitations had been approved as of Monday, Hartman did not respond.
Scrambling to locate and represent
Some attorneys said that while they experienced delays, they have seen some progress, at least when it comes to scheduling bond hearings to try to get their clients out of the detention center in the Everglades.
Magdalena Cuprys says she has three clients at the state facility. In the case of one of her clients – a Honduran man with a pending asylum application as a victim of human trafficking — Cuprys said she was able to land a bond hearing. But she remains puzzled by his detention.
She said her client was originally held at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection building in Dania Beach for about a week after he was stopped at a truck weigh station by Florida Highway Patrol officers on June 25. He has a valid drivers' license, Cuprys said. She still doesn't know why he was detained that day. The Honduran man called her when he was stopped and an FHP officer took the phone and told her that anyone who 'appears Hispanic' needs to be sent to CBP to have their license verified, she said. Cuprys didn't name her client publicly, but the Herald/Times was able to independently confirm he is a detainee at the facility.
The Florida Highway Patrol could not immediately be reached for comment.
Officers told Cuprys her client would eventually be transferred to Krome detention center, so she prepped to file for his bond there. Then she found out from his family that he ended up at Alligator Alcatraz.
She filed at Krome Immigration Court anyway, since there was no process to file a motion at Alligator Alcatraz. She could not find a phone number or an email. When she asked an immigration court clerk what she should do, the clerk told her they had no information about Alligator Alcatraz or any of the detainees at the site. So she called back on July 8.
'And she [the clerk] said that their instructions are to reject those motions because they're not in ICE custody,' Cuprys said.
The motion for a bond hearing was stuck in processing for days. Then, late last week it was scheduled for Tuesday.
Cuprys said she's not optimistic. She's unsure whether her client will be able to attend. She's also expecting the judge to determine the court doesn't have jurisdiction, because she's been repeatedly told that her client is not in ICE custody.
The question about legal jurisdiction is critical for attorneys navigating their clients' cases. But since the detention center opened to detainees on July 2, attorneys say they have had trouble discerning whether their clients are in the custody of the federal government or the state.
The Trump administration has insisted in court that it does not have control over the facility where ICE detainees are being held. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Saturday that the state of Florida — not ICE — is in charge of managing the facility. And while Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the site has on-site legal services for detainees, it is unclear how that is working two weeks into the facility's opening.
Trump has also expressed support for Florida's plan to expedite deportations by having qualified National Guard members act as immigration judges at the site, but as of Monday those plans were not yet in motion, as guardsmen had yet to receive any 'formal tasking,' according to a spokesperson for the National Guard.
Falling off the grid
A DHS official, who asked to remain anonymous because he does not have authority to speak publicly, said there have been a lot of bumps in the rollout, including incorporating the new Alligator Alcatraz detainees into ICE's database system that tracks them.
'Because it's so new, it's going to take a while for them to be added to the ICE locator system,' the official said.
The Herald/Times searched 747 names of people who are held or scheduled to be sent to Alligator Alcatraz on the ICE database. Only 40 appeared on the public-facing website, most of them listed as being located at nearby facilities, and three marked with a note to 'call field office.'
Eig, the Miami immigration attorney, said one of her clients — a man with no criminal record who was detained by federal immigration agents during a routine check-in at an ICE field office — showed up on the ICE locator last week.
But on Monday, she checked again, and his name was no longer there.
'He's completely gone, but he was there,' she said.
While detainees are not showing up on the ICE database, officials at the Krome detention center in Miami are regularly interacting with their state counterparts at Alligator Alcatraz. But attorneys interviewed by the Herald/Times have had to figure this all out on their own.
As Cuprys tried to represent her clients at Alligator Alcatraz, she started making calls.
She said the clerk at Krome suggested she reach out to federal Enforcement and Removal officers. An officer there told her that Alligator Alcatraz wasn't set up yet for hearings and that the state was working on a memorandum of understanding, but it wasn't 'notched out' yet.
When Cuprys emailed a legal visit request to the Department of Homeland Security, she was told her client was 'under the custody of the State of Florida,' not the federal government.
As the question of legal custody lingers, attorneys are still trying to meet with their clients – but it has not been easy.
Victor Martinez, Cuprys' law partner, said staff at the facility told him when he visited Alligator Alcatraz on July 7 that he was one of the first attorneys to try and conduct a legal visitation at the site. So, they had him park and wait for almost five hours outside.
'What they said is that they are not ready to receive attorneys,' Martinez said. 'Maybe they didn't think attorneys were going to go visit their clients. They never set up for that.'
Martinez was not allowed inside, and he wasn't able to contact his clients. Neither he nor Cuprys have been able to get their clients on the phone since then.
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TPD, Florida DCF refuse to release records involving Missy Mogle abuse investigations
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"I'm trying to touch base with you," she said another time. On April 15, 2025, the same day Pepper Mogle last saw her granddaughter Missy at the courthouse, Daniel Spencer was found guilty for traveling to a meet a minor. At the end of his one-day trial, Assistant State Attorney Jasmine Mattear asked Leon Circuit Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper to jail Daniel Spencer while he awaited sentencing. The prosecutor didn't mention the earlier molestation allegation against Spencer, though it's unclear whether she was aware of it. Baker-Carper announced she wasn't going to incarcerate him because he had been out of jail on bond for a year without any violations and had no violent criminal history. "You're free to enlighten the court if I've missed something," the judge told the prosecutor before Spencer left the courthouse a free man. A week before Daniel Spencer's trial, a hearing date for Pepper and Andy Mogle's petition to get Missy back was set for June 3, 2025, nearly a year after they filed it. By then, Missy was dead. The problem with 'power of attorney' Latham, the University of Miami professor, said DCF agreed to an 'out of home, non-judicial" placement for Missy, meaning she was allowed to live with someone else without the oversight of a judge. He said such an arrangement might work in certain situations, like a parent who is on drugs but getting help. 'I can imagine a scenario where it makes sense – just not for a sex abuse case,' he said. 'That's the part that I find the most offensive. They should have gone ahead with a judicial case.' Latham said a DCF safety plan, which prescribes a course of action to keep a child from harm, shouldn't have relied on a power of attorney involving an 'aunt,' who in Missy's case was not a blood relative. Instead, DCF could have helped the family file what's known as a Chapter 751 case to officially give custody to a relative. 'That way the people involved could not unilaterally return the child,' he said. 'They would have to go to court and have the judge approve the return. That would have been an extra level of safety. But in a sex abuse case where the mother lives with the perpetrator ... I think even that would have been a stretch.' Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida's Children First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group, said DCF's safety plan is supposed to go through various reviews at set intervals. She agreed it isn't appropriate to use a power of attorney in a case involving a sexual abuse allegation. 'A power of attorney gives the caregiver the authority to obtain services for a child, but does not preclude a parent from having custody of a child," Rosenberg said. DCF itself recognized the inherent dangers of relying on a power of attorney in abuse cases. In a 2010 memo, Alan Abramowitz, state director of DCF's Family Safety Program Office, said child protective staff should not use power of attorney as a safety action. 'If during a protective investigation, the non-custodial caregiver has a power of attorney and the return of the child to the parent does not place a child at risk, this is a lawful use of a power of attorney,' he wrote. 'However, child protective staff should not consider this decision in their overall safety action determination and shall proceed as if there is no power of attorney where the safety of the child is of concern.' DCF issued a short statement about Missy's death in a July 16 email to the Tallahassee Democrat and USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida but said it couldn't go into details about the case. 'The Florida Department of Children and Families investigates all child deaths related to allegations of abuse, neglect, or abandonment in close coordination with law enforcement,' the agency said. 'Information specific to this case is confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes.' DCF's Child Fatality Prevention Program website showed 257 child fatalities so far this year in Florida but only three from "inflicted trauma," not including Missy's case. The leading causes were drowning, at 27%, sleep-related, at 9%, and natural, at 7%. 'It could have been prevented' On the morning Missy died, Robert Frable, the retired doctor who lived with the Spencers, heard a loud crash in her bedroom. Daniel Spencer claimed a camera had fallen over, but Frable doubted that because the noise was so loud. About a half hour later, Spencer came to him carrying Missy's limp body, according to police reports. Frable was performing CPR when first responders arrived. Investigators said it appeared Daniel Spencer was on 'illicit narcotics' when he spoke to them. Her loved ones said he was a meth user. 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In June, Attorney General Uthmeier proposed 'Missy's Law,' which would prohibit the release of defendants after they have been convicted of a sex crime. He said Missy's case was so tragic because 'it could have been prevented.' The Mogles also believe Missy's murder was avoidable if someone had listened to them. Pepper Mogle said after DCF closed its molestation investigation, the agency never checked up on Missy again. But it wasn't the last time DCF heard about the Spencers or their kids. On Oct. 31, 2024, Chloe Spencer called police alleging Daniel Spencer shoved her into a wall the night before during an argument. Although no arrest was made, TPD filed an online report with DCF as required because children were home during the incident. All the Mogles have left now are their photographs and memories of Missy, who loved ballet, playing with her dog Daisy and doting on children smaller than herself. 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However, the WFP reiterated that a ceasefire is "the only way for humanitarian assistance to reach the entire civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner." Israel's decision to order a localized pause in fighting came days after ceasefire efforts between Israel and Hamas appeared to be in doubt. On Friday, Israel and the U.S. recalled their negotiating teams, blaming Hamas, and Israel said it was considering "alternative options" to ceasefire talks with the militant group. Israel says it is prepared to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the group has refused to agree to. Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawi said that Israel's change of tack on the humanitarian crisis amounted to an acknowledgement that there were starving Palestinians in Gaza and that the move was meant to improve its international standing and not save lives. He said that Israel "will not escape punishment and will inevitably pay the price for these criminal practices." The Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said Israeli forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 101 as they were headed toward a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution site in central Gaza. GHF, which denies involvement in any of the violence near its sites, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The military said it was looking into the report. Elsewhere, a strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the Asdaa area, northwest of the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least nine people, according to Nasser Hospital. The dead included a father and his two children, and another father and his son, the hospital said. In Gaza City, a strike hit an apartment late Saturday in the city's western side, killing four people, including two women, said the Health Ministry's ambulance and emergency service. In Deir-al-Balah early Sunday, a strike on a tent near a desalination plant killed a couple and another woman, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. However, it usually blames Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Palestinian militant group operates in populated areas. The military announced Sunday that another two soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since Oct. 7, 2023, to 898. The war began with Hamas' October 2023 attack on southern Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Hamas still holds 50 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry. The Israeli military has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship seeking to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and seizing all cargo, including baby formula, food and medicine, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said Sunday. The coalition that operates the vessel Handala said the Israeli military "violently intercepted" the ship in international waters about 40 nautical miles from Gaza, cutting the cameras and communication, just before midnight Saturday. "All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel's illegal blockade,'' the group said in a statement. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Israel's Foreign Ministry posted on X early Sunday that the Navy stopped the vessel and was bringing it to shore. It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israel has prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza, where food experts have for months warned of the risk of famine. Activist Greta Thunberg was among 12 activists on board the ship Madleen when the Israeli military seized it in June.
