Guards at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ beat, pepper-sprayed detainees, lawyer says

Guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed migrant detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, causing injuries to their heads, shoulders and wrists, according to a lawyer for two detainees.

The guards targeted several detainees at the state-run facility after they complained about a lack of phone access one day earlier this month, lawyer Katherine Blankenship said in a court declaration.

The phones are the primary method for detainees to communicate with family and their legal representation while held at the detention center, but the phones were not functioning.

The guards first started to taunt the detainees as they were in a cell. Blankenship said the guards then became “more aggressive and were yelling and threatening to enter the cage.”

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One detainee was punched in the face after walking up to a guard. The guards then began beating other detainees in the cell.

Blankenship said one of her clients was punched in the right eye, thrown to the floor and beaten by several guards. She said guards kicked him in the head and injured his shoulder and arm. A guard also put his knee on the detainee’s neck while restraining him, according to the attorney.

Included in the declaration is a photo taken during a video call nearly a week after the beating showing the detainee with a bruised eye.

“The officers beat several people during this incident and broke another detained individual’s wrist,” Blankenship wrote, noting that the detainee whose wrist was broken is not among her clients.

Phone service was restored the following day, although officials failed to provide any explanation as to why it was cut off.

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Blankenship’s declaration was part of a court filing alleging that state and federal officials have not complied with a federal judge’s preliminary injunction last month ordering the detention center to offer detainees access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored and unrecorded calls with their attorneys.

U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell directed officials to provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people held in the facility.

The judge’s order came after a lawsuit that argued that officials at the facility were violating detainees’ First Amendment rights.

State officials have denied claims of restricting detainees’ access to their attorneys, pointing to security and staffing issues for any cutoffs. Federal officials, who are also defendants in the case, denied that detainees’ First Amendment rights were violated.

Last week, state officials filed a notice saying they intend to appeal the judge’s ruling.

The facility has been slapped with several lawsuits since it was built over the summer.

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The detention facility was constructed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to support President Donald Trump’s plan to mass detain and deport migrants. Officials in the Sunshine State also built a second immigration detention center in northern Florida.

During a visit last week to the detention center, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was not given the opportunity to speak with detainees. 

The lawmaker also described conditions at the detention center as “inhumane” and “cruel.”

“The way the detainees are housed is cruel and unnecessary,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.