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Guardian: ‘The dungeon’ at Louisiana’s notorious prison reopens as Ice detention center

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Critics condemn reopening of ‘Camp J’ unit at Angola in service of Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown, noting its history of brutality and violence

There were no hurricanes in the Gulf, as can be typical for Louisiana in late July – but Governor Jeff Landry quietly declared a state of emergency. The Louisiana state penitentiary at Angola – the largest maximum security prison in the country – was out of bed space for “violent offenders” who would be “transferred to its facilities”, he warned in an executive order.

The emergency declaration allowed for the rapid refurbishing of a notorious, shuttered housing unit at Angola formerly known as Camp J – commonly referred to by prisoners as “the dungeon” because it was once used to house men in extended solitary confinement, sometimes for years on end.

For over a month, the Landry administration was tight-lipped regarding the details of their plan for Camp J, and the emergency order wasn’t picked up by the news media for several days.

But the general understanding among Louisiana’s criminal justice observers was that the move was in response to a predictable overcrowding in state prisons due to Landry’s own “tough-on-crime” policies.

Though Louisiana already had the highest incarceration rate in the country before he got into office, Landry has pushed legislation to increase sentences, abolish parole and put 17-year-olds in adult prisons.

Advocates swiftly objected to the reopening of Camp J, noting its history of brutality and violence. Ronald Marshall served 25 years in the Louisiana prison system, including a number of them in solitary confinement at Camp J, and called it the worst place he ever served time.

“It was horrible,” Marshall said.

It turns out, however, that Landry’s emergency order and the renovation of Camp J was not done to accommodate the state’s own growing prison population. It was in service of Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.

Earlier in September, Landry was joined by officials in the president’s administration in front of the renovated facility to announce that it would be used to house the “worst of the worst” immigrant detainees picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents.

“The Democrats’ open border policies have allowed for the illegal entry of violent criminals,” Landry said. “Rapists, child-predators, human traffickers, and drug dealers who have left a path of death and destruction throughout America.”

Numerous studies have shown that undocumented immigrants commit serious crimes at lower rates than US citizens – and that increased undocumented immigration does not lead to higher crime rates in specific localities.

The rollout highlights the way the Trump administration and conservative officials are seeking to blur the legally clear distinction between civil immigration detainees and people serving sentences in prison for criminal convictions – this time by utilizing a prison with a long history of violence and brutality, along with a fundamentally racist past.

The Angola facility – which Trump’s White House dubbed the “Louisiana lockup” – follows the opening of other high-profile facilities with alliterative names by states across the country, including in Florida, Nebraska and Indiana. It will have the capacity to house more than 400 detainees, officials said.

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of 51 detainees it said were already being held at the Angola facility and who allegedly have prior criminal convictions for serious charges. But while the Trump administration similarly claimed that the Florida lockup dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” would house only the worst criminal offenders, a report by the Miami Herald found that hundreds of people sent there had no criminal charges at all.

Ice has long utilized former jails and prisons as detention facilities. But there are few prisons in the country with the name recognition of Angola. And the decision to use Angola appears to be as much about trading on the prison’s reputation as it does about security or practicality.

At a 3 September news conference, the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, called the prison “legendary” and “notorious”.

Once a plantation with enslaved people, the rural prison occupies nearly 30 sq miles of land on the banks of the Mississippi River about an hour’s drive north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital. Throughout the 20th century, it gained a reputation as one of the country’s worst prisons – due to the living and working conditions, abuse by guards and endemic violence.

In 1951, dozens of prisoners slashed their achilles tendons to protest against brutality at the facility.

Medical and mental healthcare at the prison has likewise been abysmal. As recently as 2023, a federal judge found that the deficiencies in treatment at the facility amounted to “abhorrent” cruel and unusual punishment, resulting in untold numbers of avoidable complications and preventable deaths.

The prison has also maintained clear visual ties to its plantation past by continuing to operate as a working farm, where mostly Black prisoners pick crops under the watch of primarily white guards. Today, there is ongoing litigation attempting to end the practice of forced agricultural labor at the prison, which is known as the “farm line” and is required of most prisoners at some point during their sentences. Some prisoners can make as little as two cents an hour for their labor, and some are paid nothing at all.

Civil rights attorneys have argued that the farm line serves “no legitimate penological or institutional purpose” and instead is “designed to ‘break’ incarcerated men and ensure their submission”.

Nora Ahmed, legal director at the ACLU of Louisiana, said that the Angola immigration detention facility seemed like a clear attempt by the Trump administration to use the prison’s name recognition to further their goal of associating undocumented immigrants with criminals.

“Angola’s history as a plantation and the abuse and allegations that have surrounded Angola as an institution is meant to strike fear in the American public,” Ahmed said. “It’s the imagery that is deeply problematic.”

The Angola facility is also in some ways the natural result of aligning local, state and national trends and policies related to incarceration, immigrant detention and deportations.

Louisiana has become a nationwide hub for immigrant detention and deportations. Sheriffs across the state have signed contracts with Ice in recent years to let them use their local jails as detention facilities. And Louisiana now has the second largest population of immigrant detainees in the country – after Texas. A small airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, has been the takeoff location for more deportation flights during Trump’s second presidency than anywhere else.

It’s also not the first time the state has utilized Angola for something other than housing state prisoners.

In 2022, Louisiana’s office of juvenile justice moved dozens of juvenile detainees to a renovated former death row facility on the grounds of Angola, a move that was met with litigation and outcry from youth advocates. While state officials made assurances that they would be kept separated from the adult population, youths at the facility reported being abused by guards, denied education and kept in their cells for long stretches of time.

Eventually, a judge ruled that they would need to be moved, calling the conditions “intolerable”.

Louisiana also briefly utilized Camp J in 2020 to house incarcerated pre-trial detainees from local jails around the state who had contracted Covid-19.

Pictures and videos from the new immigration facility during a tour given to reporters show that while the facility may have been renovated, it still looks decidedly prison-like. Cells have single beds with metal toilets and bars in the front. There are also a number of outdoor metal chain-link cages at the facility, resembling kennels. It is unclear what they will be used for.

In an email to the Guardian following the initial publication of this story, DHS’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said that detainees at Angola were not being held in solitary confinement or in the outdoor cages.

“These are just more lies by the media about illegal alien detention centers,” the statement read. The statement also said “smears our contributing to … Ice law enforcement officers” facing an increase in reported assaults against them.

The Louisiana department of corrections did not respond to emailed questions.

The former Camp J is now emblazoned with “Camp 57” – after the fact that Landry is Louisiana’s 57th governor. Photos captured by Louisiana news station WAFB showed the area had been painted with a sign reading “Camp 47” in a nod to Trump, who was sworn into office in January as the 47th US president. But officials evidently changed their minds about that name and then touted it as Camp 57 when it was unveiled.

Marshall, now the chief policy analyst for the advocacy organization Voice of the Experienced, said much of what made Camp J so bad were guards that staffed the facility, who promoted a culture of abuse, violence and desperation. But he said that he had little optimism that the conditions would improve under Ice leadership.

“Camp J has that reputation,” he said. “It has a spirit there – like it possesses those who are in control or have authority.”

Marshall also said that when he was in Camp J there was a sense that prisoners could at least attempt to appeal to the federal government to get relief from the brutal conditions. Now, that’s no longer the case. “You can’t cry out to the federal government for help, because the federal government is actually creating the circumstances,” Marshall said.

The problem with conflating civil immigration detention with prison is not only that it sends a message to the public that undocumented individuals are all criminals, Ahmed said – but also that they are entitled to all the legal rights that people being held in the criminal context are entitled to.

“By attaching criminality to people in immigration detention, the suggestion to the American public is also that those individuals have a [constitutional] right to counsel,” she said. “Which they do not. This is civil detention, and people are not entitled to have an attorney to vindicate their rights.”

There are still unanswered questions about the facility – including who paid for the renovations, whether or not it is being managed by a private prison contractor, or what the conditions are like for detainees. But in these early stages, the Trump administration is already touting the facility as a national model.

“Look behind us, Louisiana,” the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said at the press conference in front of the new facility. “You’re going to be an example for the rest of this country.”

Guardian: ‘The dungeon’ at Louisiana’s notorious prison reopens as Ice detention center
Critics condemn reopening of ‘Camp J’ unit at Angola in service of Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown, noting its history of brutality and violence

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/18/louisiana-angola-prison-trump-ice-immigration

Guardian: Ice detainees hold hunger strike at Louisiana state penitentiary

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Nineteen in immigration processing unit striking for access to medical and mental health care, among other demands

Nineteen people detained at an immigration detention center that the Trump administration opened within Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison were entering their fifth day on hunger strike on Sunday, according to advocacy groups.

Those striking at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) processing center set up at Angola’s former Camp J are demanding access to medical and mental health care – including prescription medications, according to the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition (SEDND) and the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG).

A statement from both groups says that detainees at the facility the Trump administration has dubbed the Louisiana Lockup are also asking for basic necessities such as toilet paper, hygiene products, and clean drinking water. Further, they seek visitation from Ice officers to raise concerns about conditions inside the facility.

‘The dungeon’ at Louisiana’s notorious prison reopens as Ice detention centerRead more

People with chronic health conditions are not receiving prescribed medications, according to SEDND and NIPNLG’s statement, and there is no access to services such as a law library or religious programming, which are required under federal detention standards.

Angola’s official name is the Louisiana state penitentiary. The strike there comes after Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, declared a state emergency in July to address what he said is a lack of capacity to house offenders at the prison.

Advocates say that the reopening of what was formerly known as Camp J for immigration detentions and deportations has subjected detainees to unsafe and degrading conditions.

“The real emergency is what’s happening inside: people are being denied life-saving medication, and some may die as a result,” SEDND said in a statement. “These hunger strikers are bravely speaking out, risking retaliation from Camp J guards and putting their own lives on the line to ensure those around them receive the medical care they need.”

Louisiana for now holds the second largest population of immigrant detainees in the country after Texas. A small airport in Alexandria has become the nation’s leading departure point for deportation flights during Donald Trump’s second presidency.

The Louisiana state penitentiary has a history of being used for purposes beside housing state prisoners. In 2022, dozens of juvenile detainees were moved to a renovated former death row facility on the prison grounds, which led to litigation from youth advocates.

Reports from inside described abuse by guards, lack of education, and extended isolation. A judge eventually ordered the youths transferred, and called the conditions “intolerable”. Camp J itself was also briefly used in 2020 to house pre-trial detainees with Covid-19.

Trump’s deportation hub: inside the ‘black hole’ where immigrants disappearRead more

Camp J, once notorious enough to be shut down in 2018, has now been rebranded. Beside Louisiana Lockup, that particular facility is now also referred to as Camp 57, a homage to Landry, the state’s 57th governor. Advocates warn that what made Camp J so brutal before, including the guard culture of abuse, violence and desperation, still remains intact.

“The fact that Angola cannot provide even the most basic medical care and supplies is yet another reason this facility should be shut down,” said Bridget Pranzatelli of the National Immigration Project.

The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the hunger strike. Homeland security has previously published a list of more than 50 Ice detainees it said were already being held at the Angola facility and who allegedly have prior criminal convictions for serious charges.

Ice detainees hold hunger strike at Louisiana state penitentiary
Nineteen in immigration processing unit striking for access to medical and mental health care, among other demands

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/21/ice-detainee-hunger-strike-louisiana

CNN: Trump’s pick to lead [Bureau of Labor Statics] ran Twitter account with sexually degrading, bigoted attacks

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President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics operated a since-deleted Twitter account that featured sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, derogatory remarks about gay people, conspiracy theories, and crude insults aimed at critics of President Donald Trump.

E.J. Antoni, a 37-year-old economist for the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, posted the comments from approximately 2017 through 2020 under a series of usernames and display names. CNN verified that all of Antoni’s posts came from the same Twitter account and that the posts from the anonymous aliases shared strikingly similar biographical details as Antoni.

An outspoken critic of the nonpartisan BLS, which calculates US job growth and unemployment figures, Antoni is a stout Trump loyalist. NBC News reported and CNN confirmed that he was a “bystander” at the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. There is no evidence he entered the Capitol.

His appointment comes after Trump fired the Biden-appointed BLS commissioner and accused the agency without evidence of corruption after a report showed job growth in May and June was weaker than previously estimated.

Antoni has positioned himself as a watchdog for government accountability in media appearances and Heritage Foundation blog posts. But his own digital trail reveals a pattern of incendiary rhetoric that veered frequently into conspiracy theories and misogyny.

In 2019, the since-deleted account known as “ErwinJohnAntoni” changed its username to “phdofbombsaway.” The account posted at least five sexually suggestive tweets implying that then Sen. Kamala Harris had advanced her career through sexual favors.

Shortly after Harris ended her 2020 presidential campaign, Antoni wrote, “You can’t run a race on your knees,” in response to a tweet of a doctored campaign poster that depicted a sexually explicit image of Harris.

Antoni also referred to Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, as “Miss Piggy.” In February 2020, he retweeted a post titled “Advice For Women: How To Land a Great Guy,” which instructed women to “be in shape,” “grow your hair long,” “be sweet,” “learn to cook,” and “don’t be annoying.” The post concluded: “Angry feminists and simps will try to sabotage you in the comments. Don’t listen to them. Listen to me.”

Wired first reported the existence of the account, detailing Antoni’s posts engaging with conspiracy theories on the 2020 election and Covid-19, and referencing weapons used by Nazi Germany in World War II. After that story was published, Antoni’s cousin, a right-wing podcaster, defended Antoni in a social media post, saying the family was proud their grandfather had fought for the US in World War II.

In a statement, the White House defended Antoni and did not address whether he still holds beliefs he espoused on the account.

“President Trump has nominated Dr. EJ Antoni to fix the issues at the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports. Dr. Antoni has the experience and credentials needed to restore solution-oriented leadership at the BLS — solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS’s accuracy,” said Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson.

Trump’s decision on August 1 to fire BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer drew criticism from economists who warned that politicizing the government’s employment data risks eroding trust and disrupting markets. The BLS is critical to the way governments, businesses and everyday people view the economy.

Unlike McEntarfer, who had decades of experience working in government, Antoni has none. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Northern Illinois University in 2020 and took positions at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, where he now works as an economist. The Heritage Foundation is the architect of Project 2025, which envisioned a blueprint for Trump’s second term.

Among its suggestions was a recommendation to consolidate BLS with the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Census Bureau to make it “a more manageable, focused, and efficient statistical agency.”

Antoni’s academic work is also sparse, causing concern from prominent economists. Last year, he co-published a report that purported “the American economy has actually been in recession since 2022,” which economists across the political spectrum have criticized.

In past appearances on cable media, Antoni echoed Trump’s dissatisfaction with labor statistics and with the Federal Reserve. In one appearance from earlier this year, Antoni accused the central bank of “election interference” for cutting rates close to the 2024 presidential election, a claim Trump has also made.

Antoni, who is not currently leading the bureau, faces a difficult Senate confirmation process. His nomination must first pass through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, which counts moderate Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins as members.

A spokesperson for HELP committee Chairman Bill Cassidy told CNN the committee plans to hold a hearing for Antoni pending completed paperwork.

A hearing for Antoni would be rare, as the committee does not typically hold hearings for the position. But it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The last time this occurred was during Trump’s first term for another Heritage Foundation economist, William Beach.

Antoni as ‘phdofbombsaway’

Antoni’s Twitter account was created in 2015, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. He initially appears to have used his full name – ErwinJohnAntoni – as the username and Erwin J. Antoni III as the display name. The account’s profile picture featured Trump in revolutionary garb gripping a massive gun, an American flag at his back, a bald eagle perched on his opposite arm, and flames rising behind him.

Under two separate display names, Antoni frequently referred to himself as an “economist” on the account. In March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the account tweeted twice that he was an economist.

By May 2020, after Antoni was awarded his Ph.D., he had reverted the display name to Dr. Erwin J. Antoni III while keeping the handle phdofbombsaway. A conservative think tank tagged Antoni on the account in 2020, which helped CNN trace the account to him.

That summer, after he changed his display to Dr. Erwin J. Antoni III, he tweeted four separate times that he was an economist.

The account also used the phrase “You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind,” across both display names 20 times. On his professional account, “RealEJAntoni,” Antoni used the phrase “reap the whirlwind” at least three times.

Antoni’s posts during this time often mirrored Trump’s rhetoric. In January 2018, Antoni criticized a potential government shutdown as a way to “derail” the economy. “#SchumerShutdown is the Dems’ pathetic attempt to derail the Trump Train economy. It won’t work – get on board or get run over,” he wrote.

When Arizona Sen. John McCain passed away in August 2018, Antoni tweeted under his real name, “I like a senator who doesn’t die” — echoing Trump’s infamous line from 2015 insulting McCain for being captured during the Vietnam War.

Sometime in mid-2019, when Antoni was a Ph.D. candidate in economics at Northern Illinois University, the account’s username changed to “phdofbombsaway” with the display name “Dr. Curtis LeMay.” The profile image also changed to what looks to be a nuclear explosion. The username and display name appear to be a reference to “Bombs Away LeMay,” a reference to the Cold War general and his controversial stance promoting the use of nuclear weapons. LeMay ran alongside segregationist George Wallace on his 1968 presidential ticket for the far-right American Independent Party.

In other posts, Antoni frequently targeted progressive congresswomen in the so-called “Squad.” He called Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “whack job” and “space cadet.” In November 2019, he called her an “antisemite” after she led an effort to try to force Trump White House staffer Stephen Miller to resign after leaked emails showed Miller shared articles from a White nationalist website before he worked at the White House. In March 2020, Antoni tweeted about Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Trump critic, saying “No one wants to have sex with that catfish.” When Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota tweeted in support of “LGBTQIA+” issues, Antoni invoked a debunked conspiracy theory that Omar was married to her brother. “Does the I stand for incest? With your brother?” he wrote.

He also repeatedly tweeted that liberal economist Paul Krugman was a pedophile, a smear for which there is no evidence – and one he also hurled at former President Joe Biden and former FBI director James Comey.

In February 2020, Antoni declared: “Feminism is that belief by which women are liberated from false slavery to men in order to become true slaves to corporations.” And in another post, responding to a post to #TellMeALie, he wrote “attractive feminists exist.”

And in March 2020, he dismissed LGBTQ people’s existence, writing: “There is only one sexual orientation — everything else is a disorientation.”

Some of his other provocative posts were sexually graphic anti-gay taunts at CNN anchors Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper, both of whom are gay.

Antoni also promoted the debunked conspiracy theory that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich — who was murdered in 2016 in what police described as a botched robbery — was actually the source of leaked DNC emails during the 2016 presidential campaign, rather than Russian hackers.

He engaged with an account that promoted the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory in hashtags, in a tweet attacking Sen. Adam Schiff, who was then a House representative. And he frequently tweeted at the far-right account “Catturd2,” known for spreading conspiracy theories.

Antoni, using his given name, also used the account to promote hardline socially conservative views.

In September 2020, he argued against abortion even in cases of rape, writing: “If the original principle was that abortion is wrong because it kills an innocent human life, then the manner of conception does not change that fact. In this line of thinking, abortion after rape would be punishing an innocent child for someone else’s crime.”

As phdofbombsaway in 2019, he once posted that abortion was “child sacrifice.”

Antoni abandoned his Twitter account after Trump was banned from the platform following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. He migrated over to the now-defunct website Parler using the phdofbombsaway username.

In one of the few archived posts from the account, he posted a meme of a Twitter avatar-like bird wearing an Adolf Hitler mustache and Nazi armband, writing “I believe censorship is bad, 1984-level bad.”

Bigots in Trumpville? Why am I not surprised? Remember that Trump himself was sued several times for refusing to rent his New York City apartments to blacks. He’s the same old bigot, just older, fatter, and uglier.

Trump’s pick to lead Bureau of Labor Statistics ran anonymous Twitter account filled with sexually degrading and bigoted attacks | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics operated a since-deleted Twitter account that featured sexually degrading attacks on Kamala Harris, derogatory remarks about gay people, conspiracy theories, and crude insults aimed at critics of President Donald Trump.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/politics/kfile-ej-antoni-bureau-of-labor-statistics-twitter-account-vis

Associated Press: US hiring stalls with employers reluctant to expand in an economy grown increasingly erratic

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The American job market, a pillar of U.S. economic strength since the pandemic, is crumbling under the weight of President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies.

Uncertain about where things are headed, companies have grown increasingly reluctant to hire, leaving agonized jobseekers unable to find work and weighing on consumers who account for 70% of all U.S. economic activity. Their spending has been the engine behind the world’s biggest economy since the COVID-19 disruptions of 2020.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added just 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% last month, also worse than expected and the highest since 2021.

“U.S. labor market deterioration intensified in August,’’ Scott Anderson, chief U.S. economist at BMO Capital Market, wrote in a commentary, noting that hiring was “slumping dangerously close to stall speed. This raises the risk of a harder landing for consumer spending and the economy in the months ahead.’’

Alexa Mamoulides, 27, was laid off in the spring from a job at a research publishing company and has been hunting for work ever since. She uses a spreadsheet to track her progress and said she’s applied for 111 positions and had 14 interviews — but hasn’t landed a job yet.

Bubba Trump is doing a splendid job of trashing our economy! And unfortunately, it’s only just begun.

US hiring stalls with employers reluctant to expand in an economy grown increasingly erratic
The American job market, a pillar of U.S. economic strength since the pandemic, is crumbling under the weight of President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies.

https://apnews.com/article/jobs-economy-unemployment-trump-firing-f686eab61f7d6b702ca10b12b0250498

WSWS: Guards riot, beat immigrant detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp in Florida Everglades

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On August 28, Noticias 23, the local Spanish-language Univision station in Miami–Ft. Lauderdale, received several frantic phone calls from immigrants detained at the Florida Everglades concentration camp, reporting that guards were assaulting and beating them.

In phone calls recorded by the outlet, immigrants at the facility—dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by President Donald Trump and his fascist supporters—said that at least four detainees were injured after guards deployed tear gas and began beating them.

“People started shouting because a relative had died, and they started shouting for freedom. At that moment, a prison team came in and started beating everyone,” said one of the detainees in one of the three phone calls.

He continued, “Right now, it’s unrest, and well, we have the helicopter overhead. Everyone here has been beaten up, many people have bled, brother, tear gas, we are immigrants, we are not criminals, we are not murderers.”

Another detainee told the outlet, “There are helicopters up above and a lot of people are bleeding. They’re beating us, they’re mistreating us.”

In another phone call, an audible alarm screeched in the background as one of the immigrants pleaded through tears, “It’s the emergency alarm, please help us.”

Family members of immigrants at the facility also reported to Noticias 23 that guards were rioting. Univision/Noticias 23 sent a request for comment to the Florida state spokesperson who oversees the concentration camp, but as of this writing there has been no reply.

The riot at the concentration camp comes one week after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued a preliminary injunction barring any further transfers to the facility and ordering it to be shut down within 60 days. Williams’ decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and the Miccosukee tribe of Florida, who argued that the facility violated several environmental laws and endangered local species and tribal resources.

The state of Florida and the US federal government have asked Judge Williams to put her order on hold pending an appeal from the state. As of this writing, Williams has not ruled on the stay request. But hundreds of detainees have reportedly been moved to other detention facilities.

It appears the judge’s decision to shut down the camp infuriated the guards, who have sadistically taken out their anger on the remaining immigrants at the facility.

While the camp was initially sold to the public as a cheap alternative to house up to 5,000 immigrants, it appears that at its height just under 1,000 people were imprisoned in the hellish facility. On a tour last week following Judge Williams’ decision, Florida Representative Maxwell Frost (Democrat) estimated that between 300 and 350 people were still being held at the camp.

On August 27, the Associated Press reported that in a message sent to South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman on August 22, Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said the camp was closing down operations quickly.

“[W]e are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days,” Guthrie wrote to Rojzman, indicating that the rabbi’s services would not be needed at the camp.

Questioned by an AP reporter about the email at an event in Orlando, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not dispute the account and indicated that the camp was no longer needed because the Department of Homeland Security was increasing the pace of deportations.

“Ultimately, it’s DHS’s decision where they want to process and stage detainees, and it’s their decision about when they want to bring them out,” DeSantis told AP.

The barbaric immigrant detention facility was hastily constructed two months ago in the middle of the Florida Everglades on a defunct airport tarmac. After construction was completed, Trump toured the facility with DeSantis, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and the fascist White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

Trump hailed the camp as a model to be emulated and openly mused that it could be used to imprison and deport US citizens: “But we also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time. … They are not new to our country, they are old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too. You want to know the truth.”

As soon as the concentration camp opened, reports immediately emerged of cruel, inhumane and unlivable conditions. Overflowing toilets, humid tents filled with mosquitos and other insects, inedible food containing worms, and the denial of access to attorneys and medical care are just some of the abuses immigrants held at the facility have suffered.

Disease also appears to be spreading rampantly at the facility. Immigrants and guards have fallen ill from what appears to have been a massive COVID-19 outbreak that nearly killed Luis Manuel Rivas Velásquez, a 38-year-old Venezuelan man. Rivas Velásquez collapsed at the facility earlier this month after being denied medical care.

In addition to being a colossal human rights abuse, the concentration camp is also a tremendous waste of money. The state of Florida signed approximately $405 million in vendor contracts to build and operate the facility, and by July 2025 had already paid out about $245 million, according to the AP. Because of the judge’s ruling, the AP estimated the state stands to lose approximately $218 million.

Court documents submitted by the Florida Department of Emergency Management and reviewed by WPTV, the local NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, found that it could cost as much as $20 million to tear down the camp.

Guards riot, beat immigrant detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp in Florida Everglades
In frantic phone calls, immigrants reported that guards deployed tear gas and assaulted them.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/08/29/uyvh-a29.html

Independent: Joe Rogan finally realizes Trump doesn’t have evidence of his biggest complaint

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The podcaster gave Trump a huge platform when he was a guest on the show in the final week of the 2024 presidential campaign

It has finally dawned on Joe Rogan that President Donald Trump doesn’t appear to have any evidence to back up the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

The podcaster gave Trump a huge platform when he was a guest on the show in the final week of the 2024 presidential election campaign, where he reeled off his widely-debunked grievance that the 2020 election was “fraudulent.”

Now, Rogan has shared his skepticism.

“I don’t think they have any evidence,” Rogan told his guest comedian Dave Smith on Tuesday’s episode ofthe Joe Rogan Experience, referring to Trump’s 2020 claims.

“I think there’s a lot of speculation and there’s a lot of consideration about mail-in ballots. There’s a lot of shenanigans,” Rogan added. “There’s a good record of shenanigans and there’s the reality of any kind of electronics can be hacked.”

“It was one of the most interesting parts of your podcast with him was when you asked him about that, it was like he really didn’t have anything to back it up,” Smith interjected.

Rogan then criticized Trump for not having a “tight 10 minutes” prepared to present his evidence and argument.

“If that was you or if that was me, I mean, there was some reason why I knew that they did something and I could give you all the facts, I would have that ready for anybody,” Rogan said. “Because…you’re, for four f***ing years they’ve been telling him he’s crazy for questioning the election. So after four years I’d have a f***ing tight 10 minutes on the election where I could just rattle off at you and rock your world with it.”

Rogan’s interview, which pulled in 38 million viewers within three days of airing, and other podcast appearances within the so-called “Manosphere” have been credited with helping Trump clinch the presidency.

Rogan, who endorsed Trump after the episode aired, gave him the opportunity to explain his evidence for claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

“I want to talk about 2020 because you said over and over again that you were robbed in 2020,” Rogan said. “How do you think you were robbed?”

Trump then launched into a familiar tirade about judges not having “what it took to turn over an election,” mail-in ballots being insecure, and Democrats using “Covid to cheat.”

Rogan appeared to sympathize with Trump. “You get labeled an election denier,” he said, drawing similarities with being labeled an “anti-vaxxer if you question some of the health consequences that people have from the Covid-19 shots.”

More recently, Rogan has been calling out the man he endorsed for president. In July, the podcaster ripped into the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files.

“They’ve got videotape and all a sudden they don’t,” Rogan said. “You had the director of the FBI on this show saying, ‘If there was [a videotape], nothing you’re looking for is on those tapes,’” referring to FBI Director Kash Patel’s interview with Rogan in June.

He also criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive ICE raids on his show, appearing to suggest that they had taken things too far.

“The targeting of migrant workers — not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?” Rogan said. “I don’t think anybody would have signed up for that.”

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-rogan-trump-2020-election-b2815018.html

Alternet: Trucking industry in shambles as Trump crackdown threatens supply chains

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Newsweek reports a trade group representing the trucking industry is supporting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s pause of work visas for immigrant truckers, despite the halt potentially aggravating work shortages in the U.S. trucking industry.

Rubio’s announcement followed a fatal crash on a Florida highway earlier this month involving a trucker from India who officials confirmed was in the country illegally. Newsweek reports preliminary findings by the Department of Transportation (DOT) revealed the driver failed assessments on his English language proficiency and his understanding of U.S. highway traffic rules.

Rubio did not reference the fatal accident at the time of his announcement, reports Newsweek, but did claim in a post on X that the increasing number of foreign truckers was “endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”

In a statement released Thursday, Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), said his group supported the move, and that the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) “needs serious scrutiny, including the enforcement of entry-level driver training standards.”

“At a minimum, we need better accounting of how many non-domiciled CDLs are being issued, which is why we applaud Transportation Secretary Duffy for launching a nationwide audit in June upon our request,” Spear told Newsweek. “… We also believe a surge in enforcement of key regulations — including motor carrier compliance — is necessary to prevent bad actors from operating on our nation’s highways, and we’ll continue to partner with federal and state authorities to identify where those gaps in enforcement exist.”

Industry reporters claims many employed in the trucking industry supported Trump for president.

As part of his crackdown on immigration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Duffy to tighten regulations on English proficiency for commercial drivers in April, despite English language requirements already being included in federal regulations.

In February, trucking industry newsletter Matrack reported The U.S. trucking industry faces a severe driver shortage, “with a projected shortfall of 160,000 by 2030, disrupting supply chains and increasing costs.” It added that the aging workforce and CDL licensing challenges, combined with low pay, health concerns and high turnover, plague the industry.

“Long-haul trucking has a turnover rate of over 90 percent in large companies, reported Matrack. “This means that almost every driver in the industry will leave their job within a year. Long hours, stressful working conditions, and time away from home make the job unattractive.”

Labor Department data said that the number of foreign-born truckers in the U.S. comprise around 18 percent of the total workforce, said Newsweek.

Read the Newsweek report at this link.

Trucking industry in shambles as Trump crackdown threatens supply chains

https://www.alternet.org/trump-trucking-supporters

Newsweek: Trump administration announces major tourist visa change

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The State Department is proposing a rule requiring some business and tourist visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a step critics say could put the process out of reach for many.

According to a notice set for publication on Tuesday in the Federal Register, the department plans a 12‑month pilot program targeting applicants from countries with high visa overstay rates and weak internal document security.

Under the plan, applicants could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when applying for a visa.

Why It Matters

This move marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and revisits a controversial measure briefly introduced during Trump’s first term.

A previous version of the policy was issued in November 2020, but was never fully enacted due to the collapse in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. That version targeted about two dozen countries, most of them in Africa, with overstay rates exceeding 10 percent.

What To Know

The new visa bond program will take effect on August 20, according to documents reviewed by Newsweek and a notice previewed Monday on the Federal Register website. The Department of Homeland Security says the goal is to ensure the U.S. government doesn’t incur costs when a visitor violates visa terms.

“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” it said.

Under the plan, U.S. consular officers can require a bond from visa applicants who meet certain criteria. This includes nationals of countries with high visa overstay rates, countries with deficient screening and vetting, and those that offer citizenship-by-investment programs, particularly where citizenship is granted without a residency requirement.

Visitors subject to the bond will receive it back upon leaving the U.S., naturalizing as a citizen, or in the event of death. If a traveler overstays, however, the bond may be forfeited and used to help cover the costs associated with their removal.

Citizens of countries in the Visa Waiver Program are exempt, and consular officers will retain the discretion to waive the bond on a case-by-case basis.

What Countries Could End Up Being Affected

The U.S. government has not provided an estimate of how many applicants may be affected. However, 2023 data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that countries with particularly high visa overstay rates include Angola, Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, and Afghanistan.

The list of affected countries will be published at least 15 days before the program begins and may be updated with similar notice. In the 2020 version of the pilot, countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Liberia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were included.

What People Are Saying

The public notice stated: “The Pilot Program will help the Department assess the continued reliance on the untested historical assumption that imposing visa bonds to achieve the foreign policy and national security goals of the United States remains too cumbersome to be practical.”

Andrew Kreighbaum, a journalist covering immigration, posted on X: “It’s getting more expensive for many business and tourist travelers to enter the U.S. On top of new visa integrity fees, the State Department is imposing visa bonds as high as $15,000.”

What Happens Next

Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but have not been implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement because of the cumbersome process of posting and discharging a bond and because of possible misperceptions by the public.

There’s always a country that wants your money — go where you’re wanted and the heck with Amerika!

Trump administration announces major tourist visa change
The State Department says the measure is intended to ensure the government does not incur costs if a visitor violates visa terms.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-visas-tourist-business-major-change-2108642

NBC News: Immigration raid fears trigger Latino student absences, as experts warn of consequences

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Chronic absenteeism affects children’s health and outcomes, as well as classmates and school resources, experts say, as some districts try to stem families’ fears of going to school.

As the new school year approaches, the typical worries of getting supplies and organizing schedules are compounded for families of mixed immigration status: wondering whether or not to send their children to class due to fears of an immigration raid at the school.

“I’ve heard so many people ask what to do, whether to take them or not, because of all these fears,” Oreana, a mother of four children enrolled in schools in Phoenix, Arizona, told Noticias Telemundo.

The fact that places like churches and schools are no longer considered “sensitive” spaces from immigration enforcement actions “causes a lot of fear,” the Venezuelan woman said.

Up until late January, when President Donald Trump took office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s operations had been restricted in churches, schools and hospitals.

The Trump administration has defended its decision to allow immigration raids in formerly sensitive locations, such as schools. “ICE does not typically conduct immigration enforcement activities at schools or school buses,” the agency told NBC News in March, adding that an immigration action near a school would be from a “case-by-case determination.”

But fear of possible immigration raids in schools isn’t just coming from parents. This past weekend, the Los Angeles Teachers Union held a protest to demand that the district do more to protect students from immigrant families.

Last semester, uneasiness following immigration raids resulted in more students missing school, according to Thomas S. Dee, a specialist in the School of Education at Stanford University.

Dee published an analysis in June whose results indicate that “recent raids coincided with a 22 percent increase in daily student absences” in California’s Central Valley, an agricultural area that’s home to many immigrant farmworkers.

The school absences were especially notable among preschool and elementary students, he noted, an age when parents are more likely to take them to school.

“We saw, when the raids began, a sharp increase in student absences that was very distinctive from the typical patterns we’d see across the school year,” Dee said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo, “and in particular relative to those baselines that we’d seen in prior years.”

What the numbers show

Beyond California, states like Washington state and Illinois have seen similar situations in some school districts.

In the suburbs of Seattle, the impact is notorious in the Highline district, which operates nearly 30 schools. There, data shows that chronic absenteeism — missing more than 10% of a class period — rose to 48% for the school year that ended in July, reversing gains the district had made over the previous two years in reducing K-12 absentee rates.

In Chicago, high school educators also reported 20% lower attendance compared to the previous year.

But Hispanic K-12 students were already likely to accumulate more absences before Trump’s second term. Some factors include going to work at an earlier age to support the family, health-related reasons or having to care for a family member during school hours.

In Illinois, Hispanic students had the second-highest chronic absenteeism rate throughout 2024, at 33%, compared to 26% across all demographic groups, according to data from the State Board of Education. Noticias Telemundo contacted the board and Illinois districts to obtain updated data through June 2025, but didn’t receive a response.

The current situation adds to disruptions to schooling that have been taking place since the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in widespread academic delays.

“We’re in an environment where we’ve seen historic losses in student achievement, sustained increases in chronic absenteeism, as well as a notable increase in the mental health challenges that youth are facing,” Dee said. “And so I see these immigration raids as only adding to the already considerable challenges of academic recovery that schools are currently facing.”

Fewer resources, more anxiety

Being absent several times during a school year has a considerable impact on a student’s education.

“Such extensive absences lead not only to poor academic performance; they often lead to students dropping out of school. And the impact of dropping out of high school is profound,” the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) stated via email.

The association highlighted that earnings for those who don’t graduate from high school are considerably lower than for those who do.

The impact, experts have said, goes beyond the classroom.

“Attending school regularly is one of the most powerful predictors of long term health, well-being and success,” Josh Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, said at a conference in mid-June.

This is because absences can affect children’s emotional and intellectual development, as well as their education. For example, they can trigger anxiety disorders that further harm children’s well-being and further encourage school absences.

Several associations have launched a campaign calling for school absences to be considered a public health problem.

“When multiple students in a classroom are chronically absent, the churn in the classroom affects everyone, even peers who had good attendance. It makes it harder for teachers to teach and set classroom norms, as well as for students to connect with each other,” said Hedy Chang, executive director of the Attendance Works group, which is leading a campaign launched in June.

Chronic absenteeism due to fears of immigration raids can have a knock-on economic effect, according to Dee.

“This also has financial implications for school districts,” he said. California is one of a handful of states that bases aid, in part, on average daily attendance, according to Dee, so when fewer kids show, that means fewer resources.

“I would expect that to have pejorative economic consequences for these communities as well as for the financial viability of the school districts serving them,” Dee said.

In many districts, repeated offenses related to absenteeism can also lead to youth being sent to truancy court. There, penalties can range from paying fines to serving time in juvenile detention.

Latino, Black and Indigenous youth in the U.S. are already more frequently referred to truancy court than non-Hispanic white students, in part because the former demographic groups’ absences are more likely to be recorded as “unjustified or unexcused,” research shows.

Preventive strategies

In response to long-standing concerns about truancy, there are strategies to combat absenteeism.

“There are many steps districts, schools, families and community partners can take to improve attendance,” said Chang, of Attendance Works.

At a Connecticut school where attendance fell early in the year due to fears of immigration raids, truancy was successfully curbed toward the end of the semester with measures such as directly contacting families and developing contingency plans.

These strategies include reaching out to community leaders, such as local church figures or food bank workers, who have contact with certain families to help encourage them to continue sending their children to school.

Another strategy that school principals belonging to NASSP say has helped is maintaining close contact with students — for example, calling their families’ homes to check on them.

Experts hope that these kinds of measures can help address the issue of absences in students of mixed immigration status who are afraid of potential immigration raids.

“In some districts, we’ve heard from students who can’t attend classes regularly right now for reasons like fear of raids, and they’ve been offered virtual learning,” Dee said. “I think educators need to be more aware of the challenges their students are currently facing due to these issues.”

For now, with protests like the one the teachers’ union held in Los Angeles, additional options are being explored, such as a districtwide campaign to educate parents about the importance of sharing an emergency contact with school administrators in case a parent is deported while the child is at school.

In the Highline school district in Washington state, communications manager Tove Tupper said in an email they’re “committed to protecting the rights and dignity of all students, families, and staff” and ensure all students “have a right to a public education, as protected by law,” regardless of citizenship or immigration status.

Immigration raid fears trigger Latino student absences as experts warn of consequences
Chronic absenteeism affects children’s health and outcomes, as well as classmates and school resources, experts say, as some districts try to stem families’ fears of going to school.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/fear-immigration-raids-latino-student-absences-school-ice-rcna223093

AFP: Trump’s crackdown leaves LA’s undocumented migrants on brink of homelessness

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When her husband was arrested in an immigration raid near Los Angeles last month, Martha was abruptly separated from the father of her two daughters. But she also lost the salary that allowed her to keep a roof over their heads.

“He’s the pillar of the family… he was the only one working,” said the undocumented woman, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.

“He’s no longer here to help us, to support me and my daughters.”

Los Angeles, where one-third of residents are immigrants — and several hundred thousand people are undocumented — has been destabilized by intensifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids under the Trump administration.

Since returning to power, US President Donald Trump has delivered on promises to launch a wide-ranging deportation drive, targeting undocumented migrants but also ensnaring many others in its net. 

After her husband’s arrest, 39-year-old Martha has joined the ranks of people barely managing to avoid ending up on the streets of Los Angeles County — a region with prohibitively high housing prices, and the largest number of homeless people in the United States outside New York. 

Her 700-square-foot apartment in Buena Park, a suburb of the California metropolis, costs $2,050 per month. After her husband’s arrest, she urgently found a minimum-wage night job in a factory to cover their most pressing needs.

It pays just enough to keep them afloat, but has left Martha unable to cover a range of obligations.

I have to pay car insurance, phone, rent, and their expenses,” she said, pointing to her six- and seven-year-old daughters, who need school supplies for the new academic year.

“That’s a lot of expenses.”

– ‘Bigger storm brewing’ –

How long can she keep up this punishing schedule, which allows her barely three hours of sleep on returning from the factory before having to wake and look after her daughters?

“I couldn’t tell you,” she said, staring blankly into space.

Los Angeles has seen some of the worst of the ICE raids. Squads of masked agents have targeted hardware stores, car washes and bus stops, arresting more than 2,200 people in June. 

About 60 percent of these had no prior criminal records, according to internal ICE documents analyzed by AFP.

Trump’s anti-immigration offensive is taking an added toll on Latino workers, who were already among the worst-affected victims of the region’s housing crisis, said Andrea Gonzalez, deputy director of the CLEAN Carwash Workers Center, a labor rights non-profit.

“A bigger storm is brewing. It’s not just about the people that got picked up, it’s about the people that are left behind as well,” she said.

“There is a concern that people are going to end up on the streets.”

Her organization is helping more than 300 struggling households whose incomes have plummeted, either because a family member has been arrested or because they are too afraid to return to work.

It has distributed more than $30,000 to help around 20 families who are unable to afford their rent, but covering everyone’s needs is simply “not sustainable,” said Gonzalez.

– ‘An emergency’ –

Local Democratic Party leaders are trying to establish financial aid for affected families.

Los Angeles County is planning a dedicated fund to tackle the problem, and city officials will also launch a fund using philanthropic donations rather than taxpayer money.

Some families should receive “a couple hundred” dollars, Mayor Karen Bass said last month.

But for Gonzalez, these initiatives do not “even scratch the surface” of what is needed, representing less than 10 percent of most affected families’ rent requirements.

She called for a “moratorium on evictions” similar to one introduced during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Otherwise, Los Angeles’ homeless population — currently numbered at 72,000, which is down slightly in the past two years — risks rising again, she warned.

“What we’re living through right now is an emergency,” said Gonzalez.

Maria Martinez’s undocumented immigrant husband was arrested in June at a carwash in Pomona, a suburb east of Los Angeles.

Since then, the 59-year-old has had to rely on help from her children to pay her $1,800 monthly rent. Her $1,000 disability allowance falls far short.

“It is stressful,” she said. “We’re just getting by.”

Trump’s crackdown leaves LA’s undocumented migrants on brink of homelessness
When her husband was arrested in an immigration raid near Los Angeles last month, Martha was abruptly separated from the father of her two daughters. Maria Martinez’s undocumented immigrant husband was arrested in June at a carwash in Pomona, a suburb east of Los Angeles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trump-s-crackdown-leaves-la-s-undocumented-migrants-on-brink-of-homelessness/ar-AA1JNxWp