A federal court ruled that California's ban on private prisons and detention centers like San Diego's Otay Mesa Detention Center, owned and operated by private company CoreCivic, and where migrant children were detained separately from their parents, is unconstitutional. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

The new immigration detention center at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades that President Donald Trump visited was heralded by Republicans as a potential model for other states to aggressively ramp up detention and deportation efforts.

The denial of entry to the detention center “was an unconstitutional executive overreach because it prevented the duly elected members of the Florida Legislature from exercising their powers” and “restricted the legislature’s independence as a co-equal branch of government,” the lawsuit alleged.