Florida Everglades detention center accused of punishing detainees seeking legal help

By GISELA SALOMON and MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

ORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Two former detainees at an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades testified Wednesday that they could be punished for seeking legal advice and had to write down phone numbers for attorneys on walls and beds using soap because they had no access to pen and paper.

The two men, one who was deported to Colombia and another who was sent back to Haiti, testified via video in a federal court in Fort Myers, Florida, that their monitored calls to people outside the detention center would be dropped whenever they talked about seeking legal advice or trying to get an attorney.

During a two-day hearing that started Wednesday, civil rights attorneys representing the detainees were seeking a temporary injunction from U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell that would ensure that detainees at the state-run Everglades facility get the same access to their attorneys as they do at federally-run detention centers. The Everglades facility was built last summer at a remote airstrip by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.

The detainees’ lawsuit claims that their First Amendment rights are being violated. They say their attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other immigration detention f...