DeSantis says all Alligator Alcatraz detainees have removal orders. Is that true?

Miami Herald

2 days ago

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 Homeland Security for a lack of attorney access at the site, do not.
One Weiser client has an immigration hearing scheduled for 2026. Another has a student visa, and was detained after he was charged with selling marijuana to a minor. The one mentioned in the lawsuit, Gonzalo Valdez, has a green card — he came to the U.S. from Cuba legally when he was six. He was on a routine probation visit after being convicted of racketeering when he was detained. None have had a final removal order stamped by an immigration judge, Weiser said.
'We have checked,' Weiser said. 'That's part of our strategy. If somebody has a final order of removal, we're going to handle the case differently than people who do not.'
The Florida Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions about Guthrie and DeSantis' comments, nor did it comment on attorneys' statements about their clients' immigration status.
A final order of deportation is issued by a judge after a finding that an immigrant does not have a legal right to remain in the United States. The order directs immigration officials to remove the immigrant, though it can be appealed. It's not uncommon for a person with a final deportation order to remain in the country for months, or even years.
During a Friday press conference at the facility, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Guthrie firmly doubled down on the idea that all detainees have removal orders. Republican officials like Florida House Speaker Danny Perez and newly appointed CFO Blaise Ingoglia have repeated the same.
The assertions by DeSantis officials and lawmakers come as lawyers say the DeSantis administration and Trump's Department of Homeland Security are holding immigrants at the detention camp without access to the federal courts system.
Magdalena Cuprys, who says only two of her seven clients at the site have final orders of removal, said the DeSantis administration could be trying to get ahead of complaints about access to legal services and the lack of an immigration court.
Reopening a closed immigration case requires an attorney to file with the court that ruled on it, not with the detention center's immigration court, she said.
'If they say that everyone has a final deportation order, in theory, they have no right to a bond hearing,' Cuprys said. 'And there's no need for a court.'
Three out of the four plaintiffs who are detainees in the attorney access lawsuit do not have final removal orders, said Eunice Cho, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing those plaintiffs. One has a pending green card petition, one has a pending asylum case and one is a Cuban national appealing a rejection of adjusting his citizenship under the Cuban Adjustment Act.
The statements that every person taken to Alligator Alcatraz has a final removal order are false, Cho said.
'It's very surprising that the government is making that significant of a misrepresentation about who's being held at the facility,' Cho said.