TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Five state lawmakers who were denied access to a new immigration detention center built by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration in the Florida Everglades have sued the governor, arguing that he overstepped his authority in blocking legislative oversight of the facility known as ''Alligator Alcatraz.''
Thursday's filing with the state Supreme Court is the most significant action yet by state officials seeking to challenge the DeSantis administration's decision to construct and operate the 3,000-bed makeshift detention center at an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland.
The lawmakers argue that DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida's emergency management division, unlawfully restricted the Legislature's independence as a co-equal branch of government in denying them access to the facility on July 3. Under Florida law, legislators are among officials who can visit all state correctional institutions ''at their pleasure.''
''The DeSantis Administration's refusal to let us in wasn't some bureaucratic misstep. It was a deliberate obstruction meant to hide what's really happening behind those gates," the lawmakers said in a joint statement. ''There is no statute that permits the Governor to overrule the Legislature's oversight authority. This lawsuit is about defending the rule of law, protecting vulnerable people inside that facility, and stopping the normalization of executive overreach.''
Since blocking the five Democratic lawmakers from entering the center earlier this month, state officials have invited Florida legislators and members of Congress to visit the site this Saturday. The plaintiffs said they expect the tour to be a ''tightly controlled walkthrough'' that doesn't meet their standard of ''real oversight.''
A representative for DeSantis called the lawsuit ''frivolous.''
''The State is looking forward to quickly dispensing with this dumb lawsuit,'' spokesperson Molly Best said in a statement.
''People resort to juvenile name-calling when they have no legal basis to defend their actions. We stand on firm legal ground: the Governor and his agency heads violated Florida law and the state Constitution by blocking legislators from performing our lawful oversight duties,'' Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a lawmaker and attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the petitioners, said in a statement.
