JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Five Florida Democratic lawmakers filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court Thursday, asking to be allowed immediate, unannounced access to the new migrant detention center in the Everglades labeled “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

The petition was filed by Rep. Ana Eskamani, Rep. Angela “Angie” Nixon, Rep. Michele Rayner, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Sen. Shevrin Jones.

The lawmakers were turned away one week ago when they arrived unannounced at the facility last week. They argue two Florida statues explicitly let legislators enter any state, county or municipal detention facility “at their pleasure.” The lawsuit argues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie abused their legal powers when they denied them entry. 

Jones posted on X, saying in part, “I’ve served in the Legislature for 13 years, and this has never happened.” 

The suit says officials only turned them away because of vague “safety concerns,” and did not offer legal justification.

The petitioners released the following joint statement:

“This is not only about transparency, it’s about whether the Governor can unilaterally block oversight from a co-equal branch of government. We filed this lawsuit because when lawmakers are denied the legal right to conduct unannounced inspections, it’s not just a violation of the law and our state’s constitution, it puts lives at risk. Those being detained are in a facility, which is tantamount to a modern day concentration camp, hastily constructed in the middle of the Everglades, with documented flooding and serious safety concerns. Florida’s statutes grant us the authority to show up without notice to ensure conditions are humane and taxpayer dollars are being properly used. That right was denied on July 3.

“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. 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. Florida law is clear: lawmakers have the statutory right to unannounced inspections. The Governor does not get to rewrite that for political convenience.”

The construction of the facility in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami was erected in just eight days.

Buses were seen arriving at the facility Thursday, just a day after Florida’s attorney general said hundreds of detainees would move in. That’s the same day lawmakers were denied access.

The facility will hold up to 3,000 immigration detention beds by early July, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeir. 

The office of Gov. Ron DeSantis is firing back after the lawsuit was filed in the Florida Supreme Court, accusing his administration of unlawfully blocking their oversight of the state’s new ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration detention center in the Everglades.

“We decided to go down to what they are deeming Alligator Alcatraz, what we consider an internment camp, concentration camp, detainment facility,” Nixon said. “They put up raggedy a** tents, and they’re using 450 million taxpayer dollars, and they don’t want us to know what’s going on.”

Nixon said many detainees have been picked up from construction sites and senior living facilities and detained without due process, calling the site “a ridiculous political stunt to gain cheap political points with their base and at the expense of people’s livelihoods.”

DeSantis’ spokeswoman Molly Best dismissed the lawsuit as “frivolous” and “dumb.”

“Yesterday, the Florida Division of Emergency Management invited all Florida legislators to tour Alligator Alcatraz this weekend,” she said. “Today, five Democrat legislators responded by filing a frivolous lawsuit demanding access to Alligator Alcatraz. The State is looking forward to quickly dispensing with this dumb lawsuit.”