Newsweek: Trump admin shares meme of ICE alligators outside Florida prison

The Trump regime’s Carnival of Cruelty continues!

The Department of Homeland Security has shared an apparently AI-generated meme depicting alligators as ICE agents outside of a Florida detention center.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is a new migrant detention center being developed on a remote airstrip in the Everglades. The facility aims to house up to 5,000 detainees and uses the area’s natural isolation and wildlife as part of its security measures.

“Coming soon!” DHS said in a post on X.

The remote facility is expected to cost Florida approximately $450 million annually to operate. The proposal comes as President Donald Trump‘s administration looks to conduct what it describes as the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history.

Critics say that the center’s remote location and rapid deployment raise ethical and legal questions about the treatment of migrants, transparency, and due process. Supporters say the project is a cost-efficient step to handle increased immigration enforcement.

The image shared by DHS shows alligators wearing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) baseball caps outside the fences of the detention center.

The meme and plans have sparked outrage from critics over inhumane conditions and concerns from environmental groups.

“A horrendous lack of humanity,” Georgetown lecturer Brett Bruen, who served as director of global engagement during the Obama administration, said in a post on X.

Former CIA officer Christopher Burgess described the post as “Disgusting.”

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-meme-ice-alligator-alcatraz-florida-2092148

The Hill: Migrant deaths in ICE custody spark concerns

  • 8 migrants have died in ICE detention centers since January
  • Migrant rights groups allege insufficient medical care in ICE facilities
  • ICE says every death at a facility is ‘a significant cause for concern’

A Canadian citizen held in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Miami became the 11th person to die in an ICE facility since October after he was found unresponsive this week.

The agency said Thursday that Johnny Noviello, 49, died in the ICE facility and that his cause of death remains under investigation.

ICE officials say that any death that occurs in a detention facility is a “significant cause for concern” and that the agency prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of all migrants in ICE custody. Eight people have died in ICE detention centers this year alone — including four in Florida — according to federal data.

Noviello became a legal permanent resident in the U.S. in 1991 but was convicted in 2023 of racketeering and drug trafficking in Florida, ICE officials said this week. He was sentenced to spend a year in prison before he was arrested in May by ICE at the Florida Department of Corrections Probation office. He was given a notice to appear and was charged with being deported for violating state law.

In 2024, an American Civil Liberties Union report indicated that 95% of deaths that took place in ICE facilities between 2017 and 2021 could have been prevented or possibly prevented. The investigation, which was conducted by the ACLU, American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights, analyzed the deaths of the 52 people who died in ICE custody during that time frame.

“ICE has failed to provide adequate — even basic — medical and mental health care and ensure that people in detention are treated with dignity,” Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project and report co-author, said last year. “Abuses in ICE detention should no longer go ignored. It’s time to hold ICE accountable and end this failed, dangerous mass detention machine once and for all.”

The report alleged that ICE had “persistent failings in medical and mental care” that caused preventable deaths, including suicides. It also said that the federal agency failed to provide adequate medical care, medication and staffing.

Of the 52 deaths that the study analyzed, 88% involved cases in which the organizations found that incomplete, inappropriate and delayed treatments or medications contributed directly to the deaths of migrants being held in ICE custody.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5374028-migrant-deaths-in-ice-custody-canadian-citizen-florida

Associated Press: Judge finds Florida attorney general in contempt over immigration law

A federal judge on Tuesday found Florida’s attorney general to be in civil contempt over her ruling that put on hold a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier was unconvincing in his arguments that he didn’t flout her injunction putting the law on hold. Uthmeier had sent out a memo saying the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent police officers and deputies from enforcing the law. A contempt hearing was held two weeks ago in Miami.

Unfortunately Uthmeier appears intent on proving that you can’t fix stupid.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-immigration-uthmeier-desantis-dc63318b3b2ab1e20ba61aa83e4f102c

Huffington Post: Latinas For Trump Co-Founder Rips Trump Immigration Policies As ‘Unacceptable And Inhumane

A Republican Florida state senator who co-founded the group Latinas for Trump is condemning and distancing herself from President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, calling them “unacceptable and inhumane.”

“This is not what we voted for. I have always supported Trump, through thick and thin. However, this is unacceptable and inhumane,” Sen. Ileana Garcia said in a statement Saturday.

Garcia, whose district of Miami-Dade County is overwhelmingly Hispanic or Latino and voted for Trump during the last election, said she sides with Trump’s efforts to target immigrants who are criminals, but said his targeting of those seeking lawful citizenship is unjust.

She doesn’t yet understand that it’s not about criminals. Trump is a racist, has been for decades, was sued in federal court for refusing to rent to blacks. This is all about keeping America white — like King Donald.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ileana-garcia-condemns-trump-immigration-policies_n_6846ea24e4b0ee4cf20cef74

Independent: Outrage after California fourth grader is detained by ICE agents during immigration hearing

Parents and teachers in southern California are urgently asking for help to find a fourth grader who is being “held captive” by immigration authorities in Texas.

Torrance Elementary School student Martir Garcia Lara attended an immigration court appointment with his father in Houston on May 29 “when suddenly they were detained and separated from each other,” according to a message from the school’s Parent Teacher Association.

The boy and his father are reportedly in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

“He’s alone and he’s not able to return home,” PTA president Jasmin King told KTLA.

“We have not received any information on why they were detained,” she said. “All we know is that Martir is just a fourth grader who’s by himself, without his dad, without a parent, and just in a place that he probably doesn’t know, so we can only imagine what he might be feeling.”

A fourth-grader! What a catch!

Homan’s bully boys must be really proud of themselves today!

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/california-ice-arrest-elementary-school-b2763614.html

El Paso Matters: Migrants arrested outside El Paso federal building after immigration hearings under new Trump expedited deportation strategy

Two young men emerged from the Richard C. White Federal Building in Downtown El Paso on Thursday, laughing together as they turned left onto San Antonio Avenue. It was 1:50 p.m. and 99 degrees.

As they reached the corner of South Florence Street just a few steps away, a group of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on them and grabbed Yasmir Marquez by the elbow. The two men were quickly surrounded by more federal law enforcement agents, one of whom showed Marquez a document. He turned to give his friend a hug before he was hustled into a waiting white van. Once inside, he was handcuffed.

Within three minutes, the other man stood alone on the sidewalk under the blazing sun watching in disbelief as the van drove away with his friend inside. “What the f— just happened?” asked the man, who was not arrested.

The courthouse arrests are a new tactic under the Trump administration’s efforts to scale up deportations, targeting migrants at immigration courts immediately after their court-ordered hearings. The migrants are ordered deported or have their cases dismissed and are then arrested by immigration agents as they leave the courtroom or the buildings, which allows for swift removal, the New York Times reported last week. 

The Times obtained an internal ICE memo circulated on May 20 that the news organization reported instructed government prosecutors to help deportation officers with the operation to identify people whose pending immigration court case could be dismissed. Without their case pending in court, the migrants could be subject to expedited removal that doesn’t require a hearing before a judge. 

CNN: Democratic senator places hold on Trump pick for top federal prosecutor in Miami saying Vance set precedent

A new battle is stirring on Capitol Hill as Senate Democrats have threatened to not move forward with confirmations of President Donald Trump’s US attorney nominees around the country – already following through with a hold on one of his picks.

Senate Democrats say they are merely following precedent established by now-Vice President JD Vance under President Joe Biden, when the then-senator held up US attorney nominations in protest of what he called the political prosecutions against Trump.

If it hinders the appointments of more twits like Alina “Bimbo #4” Habba, I’m all for it!

But stopping Trump from being able to fill the 93 US attorney slots across the US would place a notable strain on the justice system and could open up a continued tit-for-tat next time Democrats control the White House.

It will also spare us the drama of more revenge investigations and prosecutions by King Donald and his Attorney General Pam “Bimbo #3” Bondi.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/politics/durbin-hold-trump-pick-us-attorney-miami

Associated Press: Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants

The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.Here's The Average Price of a 6-Hour Gutter Upgrade in Minneapolis

Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the March 11 letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that FEMA appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.

https://apnews.com/article/border-shelters-laredo-phoenix-trump-releases-afc2f4d2ca786161e7bb4b03f54033fa

Miami Herald: ICE agents in Miami find new spot to carry out arrests: Immigration court

Federal agents in plain clothes staked out the hallways of Miami’s downtown immigration courthouse for hours and arrested at least four unsuspecting men as they walked out of courtrooms on Wednesday.

Miami Herald reporters witnessed how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sat in on run-of-the-mill immigration proceedings and followed the men outside the courtrooms after their hearings wrapped up.

Then, a group of about 10 other ICE agents, also in plain clothes, caught them off guard in the hallway. The agents identified themselves in Spanish before handcuffing each of the men and escorting them to a van outside.

“I am not afraid,” a Cuban man said to his wife and daughter as ICE agents arrested him.

In each case, Department of Homeland Security attorneys moved to drop the deportation cases before immigration judges. That is important because ICE cannot place someone in expedited removal proceedings — an administrative process that doesn’t require a judge and that the government uses to quickly deport people — if they have a pending case in court.

The reason behind Wednesday’s arrests at immigration court is unclear. The Herald does not know if the men detained have criminal records. But several immigration attorneys told the Herald they believe the arrests are being driven by a Homeland Security memo from January directing ICE agents to consider putting immigrants in expedited removal proceedings if they have been in the U.S. for less than two years. Expedited removals are deportation proceedings that are administrative and don’t require a judge.

“Take all steps necessary to review the alien’s case and consider, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether to apply expedited removal. This may include steps to terminate any ongoing removal proceeding,” the DHS memo says.

Lawyers had previously told the Herald the memo could lead to agents showing up at immigration court, and called it a “tool for mass deportation.”

“In my opinion, they are taking removal cases out of the docket… to put it on expedited removal, which is a lot faster,” said Antonio Ramos, an immigration attorney whose office is based in the downtown immigration court building.

Ramos urged people with pending cases to seek legal counsel and request virtual hearings to avoid unnecessary exposure at in-person court dates.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article306900486.html

Miami Herald: North Miami man detained by ICE while taking out trash, family demands answers and justice

A North Miami, Florida, man is disappeared while taking out the garbage.

North Miami man detained by ICE while taking out trash, family demands answers and justice

The family of a man taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Miami is demanding his release, saying he has no criminal record and that federal authorities have not told them why he was detained.

“My husband, a father living in the United States, married to an American citizen with no criminal record, has been unjustly detained by ICE,” wrote the family of Eduardo Nuñez Gonzalez, a Cuban man with Spanish citizenship.

In the online petition, the family writes that “[our] father’s unexpected detention has shattered our family and left a void in our lives.”

“This is an injustice against him and against all families who are being separated without cause,” the family writes in the petition. “We demand justice for our family.”

Cuban man’s family demands release after ICE arrest outside Miami home | WLRN

Throughout Vilma Perez Delgado’s home, there are pictures of her and her husband, Eduardo Nuñez Gonzalez, scattered about.

The last time she saw her husband of five years was on Thursday, March 20.

“Can I say goodbye to him? They said no, he’s already been detained,” she recalled asking the men who knocked on her front door and detained him.

Video shows the moment that morning when Eduardo was taking out the trash. A man can be seen slowly walking, and then runs to approach him. Other men also appear in the video, detaining him just steps from his front door.

The video was taken on a security camera outside Vilma’s North Miami home. And this all happened while Vilma was inside.

The men who detained her partner of more than 30 years couldn’t give her a reason as to why, so she called an attorney to help her. That attorney is still looking for answers as to why her husband was taken.

North Miami wife pleads for answers after husband was detained outside of their home – NBC 6 South Florida