Florida Everglades

The filings say detainees are often transferred just before scheduled lawyer visits, denying them legal representation.

The three-judge panel in Atlanta on Thursday decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge’s order pending the outcome of an appeal. The judges in the majority said it was in the public interest.

The legal rights lawsuit claims detainees have been denied the right to meet privately with their attorneys.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security official confirmed in an email Friday that the agency is "complying with (the judge's) order and moving detainees to other facilities."

The Republican attorneys general echoed arguments by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and President Donald Trump’s administration that the National Environmental Policy Act does not apply to the detention center.

The news comes less than a week after a federal judge ordered the detention center to wind down operations — with the last detainee needing to be out within 60 days.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, toured "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades for the second time on Wednesday and found far fewer people being held in the controversial facility, but that detainees continue being held in "cages" and in "horrible conditions."

Although a federal judge in Miami ordered their case to be moved to another Florida district, the ACLU and other plaintiffs suing the controversial migrant detention facility over access to attorneys insist they'll win the litigation - and that they have already been handed "an important victory."

The judge ruled that claims about detainees lacking confidential access to lawyers or hearings were moot while transferring the remaining case to a different jurisdiction.

On a sweltering afternoon in the Everglades, the nonprofit Guatemalan Maya Center organized the service in protest of the reportedly harsh conditions inside the immigration detention center.

Civil rights attorneys in Miami asked a judge to ensure detainees have confidential access to their lawyers. They also want the judge to identify an immigration court with jurisdiction over the center.

The Trump and DeSantis administrations have characterized the region as a treacherous swamp where little more than alligators and pythons reside. The Miccosukee call this place home—and have so for generations.