Attorneys for the federal government confirmed on Monday that Krome North Processing Center has been designated as the court with jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz, addressing concerns that people held at Florida’s Everglades immigration detention center have been unable to petition a judge.

The lack of an official immigration court designated to handle cases for detainees held at the makeshift detention camp — built hastily on an airstrip within the Big Cypress National Preserve — has been a chief sticking point in a lawsuit by detainees and lawyers alleging violations of immigrants’ constitutional rights. Immigration attorneys said their clients initially began receiving hearings at Krome after Alligator Alcatraz opened in early July, but that quickly ended, leaving detainees unable to petition the courts for bond.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II gathered attorneys on the case in his courtroom Monday for the first time as he weighed a request by the American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs to force the state and federal governments to set up an official immigration court and a confidential channel for detainees to talk with their attorneys.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs noted Monday that the government had shifted its position three times when pressed on which court had jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz, and said they were concerned the government might switch its position again. But Ruiz said the designation of an official court — as reflected on the Executive Office for Immigration Review website — rendered moot the claim that detainees’ Fifth Amendment rights were being violated.

“If for whatever reason, the website changed or the determination disappeared, then the court would have grounds to reengage the parties and find out exactly what’s going on when it comes to the Fifth Amendment claim,” Ruiz said.

The plaintiffs argued that, though the government has begun allowing in-person visitation by attorneys to meet their clients, the state has been slow in responding to requests for visits and records the phone calls and videoconferences detainees have with their attorney. Lawyers say they have to send documents ahead of each in-person consultation.

“The government has been in such a rush to build and detain people at this facility that it has one roughshod over constitutional rights at the facility,” Eunice Cho, an attorney with the ACLU, said during her closing statement.

Attorneys for the state, which oversees operations at Alligator Alcatraz, said attorneys can already meet with their clients without being overheard by guards. They said when videoconferencing began on July 15, it was in a boxed area separated by drapes. Now, detainees can use the same booths for in-person attorney visits for video conferencing, they said.

The ACLU attorneys claimed the state’s violation of detainees’ First Amendment rights has caused “irreparable harm.” They said one was erroneously deported while he was still in his immigration proceedings and had no removal order. They said officers have been pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal papers without them first speaking to counsel. One attorney said her client, an intellectually disabled detainee, was tricked into signing a voluntary removal order by being told he was signing a piece of paper to receive a blanket.

“This is why access to counsel is so paramount and such an important right to make sure is not violated at the facility,” Cho said.

Ruiz dedicated much of Monday’s hearing to determining whether the case against the state and federal governments was filed in the right district. He pointed out that Alligator Alcatraz is in Collier County, which falls within the bounds of the Middle District of Florida.

Ruiz said he plans on first determining if the case should be moved to the Middle District of Florida and will then decide on the merits of the First Amendment violation claim.

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