Imagine being locked in a remote detention facility without ever being charged with a crime, denied a lawyer, and then deported without a hearing. That’s exactly what’s happening right now at the immigration detention site in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Civil rights attorneys say detainees are being held without charges, cut off from legal counsel, and forced to sign deportation orders without understanding their rights. Immigration courts have even refused to take their cases, claiming they lack jurisdiction. At least 100 people have already been deported from the facility under these circumstances.

This is an emergency. Even now, the legal status of the facility remains murky. Federal and state officials can’t—or won’t—say which court or agency has authority over it. Meanwhile, basic constitutional protections are being trampled.

Officers at the site have reportedly gone cell to cell urging detainees to sign away their futures, while bond hearings are being cancelled altogether. One federal judge even acknowledged that “the court may be walking into a bit of a black hole” due to the unclear legal authority governing the site.

No one in America—no matter their immigration status—should be held without charge or cut off from the right to legal representation.

We call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Florida Department of Corrections, and all responsible federal and state authorities to take immediate action:

Restore due process now. Reopen access to bond hearings. End detention without charges. And shut down Alligator Alcatraz until legal rights are guaranteed.

The rule of law cannot survive in secrecy and confusion. If we allow this black site to operate in the shadows, we’re saying constitutional rights are optional. That’s not the country we want to be.

Sign now to demand accountability and immediate action.

Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images