Florida's emergency-management division resisted a federal order for Alligator Alcatraz detainee legal phone access, calling it unfeasible

On March 27, 2026, U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a preliminary injunction in H.C.R. v. Noem ordering Florida to provide detainees at the state-operated "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration facility in the Everglades with confidential outgoing legal phone calls, at a ratio of at least one working phone for every 25 detainees, after civil rights advocates alleged officials were limiting detainees' access to their attorneys. The Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM), which runs the remote site, denied wrongdoing and said detainees could reach counsel through confidential Zoom calls or in-person visits.

In a court filing on April 22, 2026 (reported two days later by the Florida Phoenix), DEM asked Judge Chappell to pause the order, arguing that adding landlines or building cell infrastructure would be "entirely unfeasible" because the remote location lacks traditional carrier service. The agency, through bureau chief Ian-Paul Gadea-Guidicelli, said compliance would require about $180,000 up front plus roughly $6,000 weekly to mobilize and maintain cellular connectivity for 77 cellphones, a cost it said would fall on Florida taxpayers. State accountability records reviewed by the Florida Phoenix, however, showed DEM had already spent about $34.2 million from the state's emergency fund on technology, internet, communications, surveillance, and IT support at the facility since September 2025 — roughly $33 million of it to the vendor Gothams LLC — undercutting the claim that the site could not support phone service. As of April 2, 2026, the facility held 1,383 detainees.

Updates

2026-05-06 — Plaintiffs opposed Florida's motion to stay the phone-access order [6]

Plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU Foundation and Americans for Immigrant Justice, filed their opposition to DEM's motion to stay, arguing attorney-initiated contact alone was insufficient because the facility could transfer detainees "in as few as six hours," and citing named plaintiffs H.C.R. and J.E., who were unable to reach counsel before deportation despite trying. They also rebutted DEM's cost claims with contradictory witness testimony indicating phone installation was feasible, and opposed a separate DEM argument -- raised for the first time in its stay motion -- that being required to publicly post its attorney-access protocols violated the state's own First Amendment rights as compelled government speech.

2026-05-11 — Judge rejected Florida's motion to stay [7, 8]

Judge Chappell denied DEM's motion to stay, dismissing the $180,025 cost argument without extended discussion and ordering the one-phone-per-25-detainees requirement to proceed. She rejected the compelled-speech argument as an "eleventh hour" tactic, writing that DEM "had ample opportunity to brief their legal arguments and introduce evidence before the Court ruled on the motion for preliminary injunction and -- for whatever reason -- chose not to do so."

2026-06-18 — Detainees transferred out and facility closed [4, 5]

DHS said all detainees had been transferred out of "Alligator Alcatraz," and Florida officials moved to close and demobilize the facility, citing hurricane-season safety and reduced need as the federal government stood up its own detention capacity. The transfer and subsequent permanent closure effectively mooted the phone-access dispute; the reporting does not attribute the closure to the injunction.