Calling government efforts "wholly inadequate," attorneys representing people held at the Everglades immigrant detention dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" are asking a federal judge to force state and federal officials to allow adequate legal representation at the facility. 

The detainees' attorneys on Thursday filed an amended complaint in a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that officials at the facility are out of compliance with federal immigration-detention standards requiring confidential legal phone calls and correspondence and allowing unannounced lawyer visits. 

Push for injunction to ensure attorney-client communication  

The detainees' attorneys also asked U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell for a preliminary injunction ordering state and federal officials to provide "timely, confidential and meaningful attorney-client communication" for people held at the facility. 

The documents were the latest salvo in multi-pronged legal battles over the immigrant-detention complex by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state officials. 

Ongoing barriers to legal access at "Alligator Alcatraz" 

The clash over legal representation came after a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week blocked a judge's ruling that required the wind-down of the detention center.

In that case, which is separate from the legal-representation lawsuit, environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe allege officials failed to comply with a federal law requiring an environmental-impact study before the Everglades facility was constructed. 

With officials continuing to send people to the remote facility, the dispute over legal representation continues to swirl. 

Lawyers at times have faced weeks-long delays trying to schedule visits with immigrants held at the facility, and detainees with legal representation have been relocated with little notice in advance of prearranged meetings, according to the documents filed Thursday. 

"Defendants have engaged in a pattern and practice of transferring detainees whose attorneys have requested in-person legal visits immediately prior to the scheduled visits, precluding their ability to meet with counsel at the facility.

Defendants have also delayed scheduling in-person visits to such an extent that some detainees never have the chance to meet with their attorneys during their detention at the facility," detainees' attorneys wrote. 

Constitutional violations alleged in lawsuit 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and immigration attorneys filed the lawsuit in July, alleging First Amendment and due-process violations at the facility, which began accepting detainees on July 3. 

During a hearing last month, attorneys for DeSantis attributed problems with legal access to the speed with which the facility was constructed and said the state had made strides in ensuring detainees could meet confidentially with their lawyers and had set up a process for legal documents to be exchanged. 

But the filings Thursday by detainees' attorneys contended the problems are ongoing. 

State and federal officials' "last-minute measures … are wholly inadequate" and violate detainees' First Amendment rights, a motion for a preliminary injunction said. 

"The government continues to impose significant barriers to attorney access for detainees held at Alligator Alcatraz, in violation of constitutional requirements," detainees' attorneys argued.