Advocates are racing to connect detainees at Alligator Alcatraz with free lawyers as reports of a possible shutdown raise fears that hundreds of people could be deported or transferred before they secure legal representation.
Immigration attorneys with Sanctuary of the South plan to attend the weekly Freedom Vigil Sunday, May 31, outside the facility to advise families and identify detainees who do not yet have legal counsel. Organizers say they have already reached more than 30 people through the weekly vigils.
Why is legal representation being prioritized now?
The U.S. immigration system does not guarantee free legal counsel for civil cases. Advocates say that gap can have serious consequences, particularly in situations where detainees may be difficult to locate or contact.
The Workers Circle — a national secular Jewish social justice group that has been organizing weekly vigils outside the facility since Aug. 3, 2025 — points to what it describes as a pattern of “enforced disappearances,” in which detainees’ whereabouts are difficult for families to track and access to legal counsel is limited.
“Of the hundreds of people still detained at Alligator Alcatraz, the vast majority are navigating this system without counsel,” said Katie Blankenship, founder and managing attorney at Sanctuary of the South.
“Most cannot afford counsel and are left to languish for months without due process. We aim to change that. Participating immigration attorneys will provide free universal consultations, receiving compensation at reduced rates enabled by the Workers Circle’s generous donation to fund greater access to counsel and transparency inside the black hole of ICE detention.
“This is an unprecedented program that we hope to grow and spread throughout the country.”
The Workers Circle donated $50,000 to SOS this week and has since raised an additional $50,000 to pilot this new program. To learn more, donate and support, visit: secure.actblue.com/donate/twc-alligator-alcatraz-legal-clinic
What are conditions like at Alligator Alcatraz?
The facility, located in Ochopee within the Big Cypress National Preserve, consists of industrial tents and steel cages. For months, the large white tent held roughly 1,000 detainees. Detainees are divided into cages, once housing 32 people in approximately 300 square feet.
But operations are winding down, according to Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost who made his third visit to the immigrant detention center Tuesday, May 26.
“There are 655 folks in it right now when just a few weeks ago, there were 1,400 people,” Frost said in a video he posted on X (formerly Twitter) after leaving Alligator Alcatraz. “And in fact while I was there, there was a flight being loaded up and sent out. There were two flights scheduled for today alone.”
Airplanes tracked via Flight Aware show at least 12 flights this week leaving the immigrant detention center going to other facilities.
In an aerial view from a helicopter, the migrant detention center, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is seen located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on July 4, 2025 in Ochopee, Fla. President Donald Trump was present at the opening of the 5,000-bed facility, located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands, as part of his expansion of undocumented migrant deportations.
“Everything about this screams inhumane and unnecessary,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz who showed up unannounced and toured the facility April 9. “And the cruelty is the point.”
“They are literally housed in cages with three small toilets that essentially require them to urinate and defecate out in the open,” she said. “There’s a small little wall that blocks the toilet, but if you are using the facility, then you are having to do that in front of the 31 other people that are in your cage.”
Former detainees who testified during federal court hearings held in Fort Myers in late January described being kept in handcuffs for extended periods and using soap bars to write lawyers’ phone numbers on bed frames because pens and paper were not allowed. Detainees have reported open-air toilets visible within housing units and nighttime phone curfews that limit communication with the outside world.
Two U.S. senators also launched an investigation into alleged use of “the box,” a 2-foot-by-2-foot outdoor metal cage where detainees are reportedly shackled in stress positions for hours. The confinement, described as taking place in extreme heat with no food or water, has prompted concerns from lawmakers about potential torture.
On July 12, 2025, not long after the site opened, Democratic members of Congress toured the South Florida detention facility, calling it “inhumane” and “gross.”
Why do hundreds gather in the Everglades every Sunday?
For more than 44 consecutive weeks, a coalition of faith leaders, activists and families has gathered every Sunday along Tamiami Trail for what they call “Freedom Vigils.”
Held across the street from the entrance to Alligator Alcatraz, the gatherings draw between 75 and 300 people, many arriving on buses from Naples, Fort Myers, Miami and Tampa. Organized by The Workers Circle and local clergy, the vigils combine prayer, song and personal testimony to call for the facility’s closure.
The atmosphere is often emotional, especially when family members speak about loved ones held inside. At times, detainees have called out during the vigils using limited phone access inside the facility to address the crowd directly.
Rev. Laurie Hafner, senior pastor at Coral Gables United Church of Christ, has frequently led the gatherings.
“We are appalled at what has happened right across the street here, at this cruelly named detention center of Alligator Alcatraz. I can’t imagine anything more dehumanizing or more oppressive and alienating than to talk about putting people in Alcatraz, a place of such pain and horrendous care,” Hafner told The News-Press & Naples Daily News during a vigil Aug. 10, 2025.
The movement has drawn strong participation from Southwest Florida clergy, including Rev. Roy Terry of Cornerstone United Methodist Church in Naples and Rev. Tony Fisher of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Naples. Miccosukee leader Betty Osceola often opens the vigils with a welcome to tribal land and a call for reflection.
People gather in front of the access road into the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport to protest the construction of an immigrant detention center in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area on Saturday, June 28, 2025. The demonstration was led by Betty Osceola, an activist and a Miccosukee tribe member. A steady stream of trucks were seen going into the location. The location is being referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
For those interested in attending, supporting or tracking the progress of the weekly gatherings, the following resources are available:
Sign up through the Mobilize platform to reserve a seat on the free round-trip buses departing from Naples and Fort Myers
Reach out to info@circle.org or visit thecall.org to access digital archives and updates from The Workers Circle
Vigils are held every Sunday from 4 to 5 p.m. across from the entrance at 54575 Tamiami Trail E, Ochopee, FL 34141
“People whose loved ones are detained and people who are themselves detained join the vigils, some calling from inside the detention center to speak out. They are central to getting the truth about the violence, lawlessness, and torture that is happening inside these detention centers out to the public and Congress so that we can bring these horrors to an end,” said Noelle Damico, director of social justice at The Workers Circle.
“And they deserve more than an audience. They deserve a lawyer, a defense, and a real chance at freedom. They deserve justice.”
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Mickenzie Hannon is a watchdog reporter for The News-Press and Naples Daily News, covering Collier and Lee counties. Contact her at 239-435-3423 or mhannon@gannett.com.
J. Kyle Foster, reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News, contributed to this story.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Free legal help for Alligator Alcatraz detainees amid possible closure
