Hundreds of immigrants detained at the Alligator Alcatraz immigration processing center in the west of Miami in the USA seem to have disappeared.
According to the immigration rights advocacy groups, these people were deleted from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) online database and their lawyers and families could not locate them.
For example, Luis Sorto, from the Sanctuary of the South network, which provides legal services and participates in the government's lawsuit over restrictions on interviewing lawyers in the infamous immigrant prison, said, "When looking for people detained there, the ICE locator now says 'Call the Florida Penitentiary Forcement for Details.'.
Sorto added that all of the plaintiffs held at the centre were transferred elsewhere after a new case was filed in August questioning Florida's authority to arrest people there. In this case, it was also stated that the detainees did not appear in the ICE's tracking system.
The American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU), who opened the lawsuit, described Alligator Alcatraz as a "black hole," stating that some people were "missing", not appearing on the immigration system's "radar" and "their lawyers and families generally do not know where they are or how to communicate with them."
At the ACLU's National Prison Project, lawyer Eunice Cho told EL PAÍS that ICE's “insistently refusal” to immediately update the places of detainees constitutes a significant barrier to the effectiveness of attorney-client communication, damaging the principle of fair trial and another indicator of the brutality of the detention system.
About 800 detainees were no longer visible in the online database of ICE in late August, and 450 prisoners were not specified, and instead the message "Call ICE for details" was included, according to a report by the Miami Herald.
In August, a judge ruled that the state should close the camp as a result of a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and an Indian tribe, but the appellate court stopped the ruling and allowed the center to continue operations while the case was in progress.
However, following the verdict, a state official said the facility would be evacuated in a few days, and officials said they had transported detainees to other facilities, including some facilities in Florida and other facilities outside the state, which were marked by human rights organizations due to poor conditions.
The news shows that the number of people detained here has decreased significantly.
On the other hand, it is not clear how many people were deported from here or transferred to other migrant detention centers. Some detainees told the Miami Herald newspaper that authorities were pressuring them to voluntarily agree to deportation.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that about 100 people were deported from here at the end of July.
Alex Solomiany, an immigration lawyer in Miami, told the Miami Herald that he went to see a client at the immigration court at the Krome detention center in south-west of Miami, where he learned that his client had been accidentally deported to Guatemala.
He told the Solomiany EL PAÍS newspaper that his client was staying in Guatemala and was “working with ICE” to receive paroles that would allow him to return to the US.
Other lawyers say they need to make an appointment three days in advance to meet face-to-face with clients at Alligator Alcatraz.
“The number of detainees on Alligator Alcatraz is constantly changing as they are deported and transported to ICE detention centers for further deportation,” and “all detainees have the opportunity to communicate with their lawyers and family members,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an email.
“ICE's goal is to drive illegal immigrants out of the country as quickly as possible,” the DHS said.
Alligator Alcatraz was built in just over a week on an old runway in the vast wetland Everglades in western Miami. President Donald Trump approved the facility with his visit to the opening ceremony in early July, and the facility began accepting prisoners almost immediately.
Soon after, allegations of hygiene, food and ill-treatment emerged. The facility is operated by the Florida Department of Emergency Management. The state has established another immigrant detention center, which he called the Deportation Depot, in a former men's prison, north of the peninsula.