Attorneys: 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees held without charges, barred from legal access
A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday.
Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for 'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn't have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated.
'This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,' the immigration attorneys wrote. 'This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.'
The lawsuit is the second one challenging 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Environmental groups last month sued federal and state officials asking that the project built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades be halted because the process didn't follow state and federal environmental laws.
Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nancy Mace Reveals 1 Of Her ‘Favorite' Hobbies, And It's So Cruel People Think She's ‘Sick'
After spending her days terrorizing her colleagues and constituents, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) apparently likes to unwind by doing something that's so cartoonishly evil it sounds like something 'The Simpsons' would've written for Mr. Burns. On Sunday, Mace appeared on 'Fox Report Weekend' and shared one of her new 'favorite' hobbies with host Jon Scott. 'I have to tell you, one of my favorite things to watch on YouTube these days are the court hearings where illegals are in court, and ICE shows up to drag them out of court and deport them,' Mace said, presumably while stroking a white cat on her lap like a James Bond villain. Mace, unfortunately, continued, 'I can think of nothing more American today than keeping our streets safer by getting those violent criminals out of the United States of America, and we all have Donald J. Trump to thank for it.' Considering that the Trump administration's aggressive and inhumane deportation policies are unpopular with a majority of Americans, many users on X, formerly Twitter, were disgusted by Mace's remarks. A longer clip of Mace's appearance on 'Fox Report Weekend,' which was obtained by The Daily Beast, shows that Mace's Dr. Evil-esque comments were prompted by a graphic featured on Scott's show that read, 'Trump Crackdown in Sanctuary Cities.' The graphic seemed to indicate that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers in New York City have risen 400% since former President Joe Biden was in office. 'Clearly, there's a new sheriff in town,' Scott said. Mace agreed before adding the fun little tidbit that she's proposed a new bill to 'defund and take tax breaks' away from so-called sanctuary cities like New York. Trump and the Republican Party have long utilized racist rhetoric implying that all undocumented people are rapists and murderers. But recent data collected by the Deportation Data Project, a group that collects immigration numbers, indicates that about 30,000 people in immigration detention do not have a criminal record, NPR reports. Last week, HuffPost's Matt Shuham described what he saw over five days in immigration court in New York City this month. One of the more shocking quotes Shuham got during his time observing at the courthouse was from an unnamed federal agent involved with immigration court arrests. 'This is fishing in a stocked pool,' the agent told Shuham. 'You tell them, 'Show up at this location,' and then they show up and you grab them.' The agent also noted that special agents who deal with more complex crimes are being pulled off their assignments to do courthouse arrests. 'If you are a criminal,' the agent added, 'now is an easier time for you.' Related... I Watched 20 Arrests In Trump's America. Here's What They Looked Like. Nancy Mace Challenges Gavin Newsom To Debate So She Can 'Emasculate' Him Nancy Mace's 'Perverse' Migrant 'Dream' For Own State Gets Slammed Online
Axios
23 minutes ago
- Axios
Scoop: Sherrod Brown met with Schumer in Ohio amid 2026 Senate push
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Sen. Sherrod Brown met in Ohio this weekend, as Brown weighs a possible comeback bid to flip a GOP Senate seat in the state, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Schumer has lobbied Brown for months to run. Fresh off a major recruiting victory in North Carolina, he wants to expand that luck to Ohio. Brown, 72, lost re-election last year, and is considering both a Senate and gubernatorial bid in Ohio, according to sources familiar with his thinking. The former three-term Democratic senator is likely his party's best chance at running a competitive 2026 campaign in the state. Former Vice President Kamala Harris lost Ohio last year by over 10 points. Brown lost by just under four points. The big picture: Schumer has limited pickup opportunities in the Senate next year. Hitting recruitment home runs could help him expand that map. Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) on Monday announced he would run for Senate. Axios scooped last week that Cooper was planning to enter the race, which was a priority for Schumer and co. Democrats are also hopeful that Maine Gov. Janet Mills will decide to run for Senate next year, challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) for the seat. Zoom in: While party insiders see Ohio as a stretch target for Democrats, Brown's entrance would instantly shift those dynamics. He'd face Republican Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill the vacant seat created when JD Vance resigned from the Senate to serve as vice president. Between the lines: Since leaving office, Brown has launched a pro-workers organization that promotes understanding the lives of American workers. And since his loss last year, Brown has made the case in public columns that the Democratic Party must reconnect with the working class. "It is an electoral and a moral imperative, and it will be my mission for the rest of my life," Brown wrote in a March column for The New Republic. "To win the White House and governing majorities again, Democrats must reckon with how far our party has strayed from our New Deal roots, in terms of both our philosophy toward the economy, and the makeup of our coalition," he added.
Miami Herald
23 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
‘Un-American' ICE raids on sacred spaces must end, says suit by religious groups
Eleven religious groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security in response to a Trump administration policy reversal ending a decades-long practice protecting houses of worship, schools and hospitals from immigration officials looking to enforce action. The lawsuit, filed July 28 by Democracy Forward and the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs on behalf of the religious groups — including American Baptist Churches USA, Quaker groups in San Francisco Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and five Evangelical Lutheran Churches across the country — asks the court to declare the policy reversal unconstitutional and end ICE raids in sacred spaces. '(The) rescission of longstanding protections for houses of worship and other sensitive religious locations is not just harmful and un-American; it violates federal law,' the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, states. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told McClatchy News in a July 28 email the administration views the policy reversal as a way to protect those spaces from 'criminals' living in the country illegally. 'DHS's directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs,' she said. The policy reversal was seen by some as controversial, and multiple faith groups — including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals — issued statements condemning the move, saying it stopped some congregants from attending religious services. And despite promises by the administration to remove the worst criminals, ICE deportation data from Jan. 1 to June 24 shows most people who were removed or detained didn't have a violent criminal record, CBS News reported. 'Raids in churches and sacred spaces violate decades of norms in both Democratic and Republican administrations, core constitutional protections, and basic human decency,' Skye Perryman, president & CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a July 28 email shared with McClatchy News. ICE raids bring fear, disruption to religious communities, suit says The new immigration policy has sown fear among religious communities, causing a drop in attendance as reports of people being detained on and near houses of worship continue, according to the complaint. In June, ICE agents brandished a rifle at a pastor while seizing a man outside of a church near Los Angeles, according to the complaint. 'Today was a very emotional day,' Downey Memorial Christian Church leaders said in a June 11 Facebook post after the incident. 'A couple of our pastors and other community members witnessed a man being detained and taken away by men that were masked and armed.' Church leaders were unsure at the time what law enforcement agency the men were from, and they wouldn't identify themselves, according to the post. Some congregations have pivoted to meet secretly, holding baptisms — occasions previously seen as something to celebrate in community — in private, according to the complaint. 'The open joy and spiritual restoration of communal worship has been replaced by isolation, concealment, and fear,' the complaint states. More lawsuits against immigration policy reversal The lawsuit is the latest in a slew of actions taken by some religious groups against the new immigration policy. In January, five Quaker groups filed a similar lawsuit against the DHS, citing the cancellation of some worship services due to fears instilled by the policy, McClatchy News reported. Shortly after, more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups filed a lawsuit against the policy, saying it 'infringes on the groups' religious freedom,' the Associate Press reported. 'We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear,' the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, which joined the lawsuit, told the outlet. This new lawsuit states the policy reversal is a violation of the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. 'The court should hold the new policy unlawful and order appropriate preliminary and permanent relief,' according to the complaint.
