In press conferences and on TV, top Florida officials have repeatedly said that everyone detained at Alligator Alcatraz has been ordered by a judge to be removed from the country.
“Everybody in this facility is on a final removal order,” Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees operations at the detention center, told reporters on Friday.
But attorneys representing immigrants detained at the center say that’s not true.
Anna Weiser, immigration attorney at Smith and Eulo Law, said she has only had one client at Alligator Alcatraz with a final removal order so far — he was sent to the Bahamas a few days after his arrival at the facility. Three others, including one who’s mentioned in a lawsuit against the state and the Department of Homelan