Lawyer says guards beat, pepper-sprayed detainees at facility in Florida

Guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed detainees at a state-run immigration detention center known as “alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades this month, according to a lawyer for two detainees.

- BY MIKE SCHNEIDER

A PROTESTER holds a sign at the entrance to the immigration detention center.

(JESUS OLARTE Anadolu)

The guards targeted Katherine Blankenship’s clients and other detainees at the facility after they complained about not having phone access on April 2, Blankenship said in a court declaration.

The phones, which weren't functioning, are the primary way for detainees to communicate with family and their attorneys while in the detention center. The guards began taunting the detainees, who were in a cell, then became “more aggressive and were yelling and threatening to enter the cage,” Blankenship wrote.