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.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Energy withdrew a $715.8 million loan the Biden administration promised to a New Jersey utility company to help finance a proposed power line transporting offshore wind power to the grid, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
According to three Energy Department officials, the agency withdrew the loan after negotiations with leaders of Jersey Central Power & Light (JCPL), the company behind the project. JCPL leaders, they said, acknowledged the project was likely no longer feasible in light of recent offshore wind project cancellations in New Jersey—in other words, the power line would be rendered useless without offshore wind projects.
The officials, who spoke with the Free Beacon on the condition of anonymity, added that the loan didn’t conform with the Trump administration’s energy agenda, which prioritizes traditional power generation over weather-dependent electricity like wind and solar.
“The Trump administration is done subsidizing projects that ultimately raise energy prices and that are bad investments for the American people. This decision should come as no surprise,” one of the officials said.
“We’re happy to work with these utilities. We just want to do things that actually solve the problem of fixing higher prices and making us more energy secure,” a second official told the Free Beacon.
It’s a significant blow to the offshore wind industry and adds to the growing list of setbacks the industry has faced since Trump took office seven months ago. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has rescinded wind energy subsidies, curbed preferential treatment for wind developers, added environmental requirements for wind projects, launched an overhaul of existing regulations that make it easier for wind projects to receive quick approvals, and paused an under-construction wind farm off the coast of Connecticut.
Those actions fulfill Trump’s promises to block green energy development, which he says has led to higher electricity prices and damages the environment. “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” he wrote on Truth Social last week.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, issued its conditional loan commitment for JCPL’s power line project—the so-called Clean Energy Corridor project—just days before Trump took office in January, stating that it would help add “clean, resilient power” to the grid and support New Jersey’s green energy mandate laws.
It was one of dozens of green energy loans worth a total of more than $80 billion that Biden officials issued after Trump was elected in November.
The Department of Energy terminated another one of those loans, a conditional commitment worth $4.9 billion to help finance the Grain Belt Express power line in the Midwest. That project, like JCPL’s Clean Energy Corridor, was designed to transport wind energy.
“The last guys rushed all these things out, knowing that they didn’t really make sense. And they tried to bind us,” one of the Energy Department officials said. “We’re not going to fall for it—it’s not the way to behave if you’re a fiduciary for the American people.”
In a statement to the Free Beacon, JCPL said it has “no new updates” on the status of the loan.
At one point, a woman asks, “Why are people not getting due process? Why are immigrants not getting due process?” Moore’s answer went down like a lead balloon. “So, due process for a citizen and a non-citizen are different things.” He was drowned out by loud jeers and cries of “false!”
What a f*ck*ng retard! We are all — citizens and non-citizens alike — equal under the law.
A Republican congressman left a heated town hall via the back door after he was relentlessly laughed at and heckled while trying to defend President Trump.
Rep. Barry Moore was hammered with tough queries—and more than a few heckles—during a raucous town hall in Daphne, Alabama.
The tense showdown was captured in a 40-minute video from the advocacy group Indivisible Baldwin County. It shows Moore squirming under relentless questioning about Medicaid cuts, the closure of rural hospitals, Trump-era tariffs, immigration crackdowns, abortion bans, and even the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C..
Moore’s attempts to respond were drowned out with laughter and interruptions. At one point, the audience openly mocked his evasive answers.
By the end of the night, the Republican lawmaker had had enough, cutting things short and slipping away through an exit rather than facing his increasingly hostile crowd.
At one point, a woman asks, “Why are people not getting due process? Why are immigrants not getting due process?” Moore’s answer went down like a lead balloon. “So, due process for a citizen and a non-citizen are different things.” He was drowned out by loud jeers and cries of “false!”
Moore continued speaking into his mic, but he couldn’t be heard over the crowd’s reaction. Failing to restore calm, he turned to an aide who took the mic from him before he headed for the exit to chants of “shame!”
The question about due process provedto be the tipping point, but Moore had been grilled all night in Baldwin County, an area where proved toDonald Trump won 78.4 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Asked what he viewed as Donald Trump’s “most meaningful” accomplishment, Moore cited border security. The audience responded with laughter, loud jeers, and chants of “Next question.” He was also accused of “lying” after asserting that Medicaid cuts in Trump’s megabill would apply only to undocumented immigrants.
Moore did not offer closing remarks or say good night as he exited the event in Daphne, a suburb of Mobile.
In an interview on Thursday on The Dale Jackson Show, a conservative Alabama podcast and radio program, Moore denied slipping out the back. “We left like any other event,” he said. “I think we tried to engage and answer questions, but unfortunately, it got hijacked.”
Moore added that he was “so calm” throughout the event and insisted he “doesn’t mind facing the heat head on.” He attributed the disruptions to “some of the same bad actors,” who he said he had seen at other appearances.
The Alabama congressman, first elected in 2020, is now running for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s seat as Tuberville campaigns for governor.
Since Donald Trump re-entered the White House in January, numerous Republican lawmakers have faced intense backlash during in-person town halls. Rep. Warren Davidson was booed over Trump-sponsored policies in Ohio, and, amid sweeping DOGE cuts in February, Rep. Rich McCormick in Georgia was heckled for justifying Elon Musk’s work.
Rep. Mark Alford was the latest GOP lawmaker to host a contentious live event during the August recess. On Monday, voters at a town hall meeting in Missouri demanded that the Republican congressman denounce President Donald Trump’s “lies”—and told him to get his head “out of Trump’s a— .”
Moore did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
A big change to all the “cheap goods” Americans order just went into effect.
For nearly a century, low-value packages of goods from abroad have entered the United States duty free, thanks to what’s known as the “de minimis rule,” which as of 2015 has applied to packages worth less than $800.
The loophole has reshaped the way countless Americans shop, enabling many small businesses globally to sell goods to US consumers with relative ease and allowing, in particular, ultra-low-cost Chinese e-commerce sites like Shein, Temu and AliExpress to sell everything from clothing to furniture to electronics directly to American shoppers, escaping many duties in place for packages exceeding the $800 threshold.
But those days are over. As of one minute past midnight Eastern Time, all imported goods — regardless of their value — are now subject to 10% to 50% tariff rates, depending on their country of origin. (In certain cases, they could face a flat fee of $80 to $200, but only for the next six months.)
A headache for delivery services
Ahead of the expiration of the de minimis rule, a slew of delivery services across Europe, as well as Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Mexico suspended deliveries to the United States, citing logistical compliance challenges.
International shipper UPS, meanwhile, said in a statement to CNN Thursday: “We stand ready for the new changes and do not anticipate any backlogs or delays.”
DHL, which suspended service for standard parcel shipments from Germany but is continuing to ship international packages to the United States from all other countries it serves, told CNN that shipments “may experience delays during the transitional period as all parties adjust to the changes in tariff policy and regulation.”
The United States Postal Service and FedEx declined to comment on whether customers should anticipate delays.
“Our systems are fully programmed and equipped to support the seamless implementation of these changes. CBP has prepared extensively for this transition and stands ready with a comprehensive strategy, having provided clear and timely guidance to supply chain partners, including foreign postal operators, carriers, and qualified third parties to ensure compliance with the new rules.
Susan Thomas, the acting executive assistant commissioner for Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade, told CNN in a statement that the agency’s systems “are fully programmed and equipped to support the seamless implementation of these changes.”
“CBP has prepared extensively for this transition and stands ready with a comprehensive strategy, having provided clear and timely guidance to supply chain partners, including foreign postal operators, carriers, and qualified third parties to ensure compliance with the new rules,” she said.
A potential benefit for some American small businesses
While some small businesses, like some individual consumers, have benefited from the de minimis exemption by purchasing goods duty-free, the end of the exemption may benefit some, too.
For Steve Raderstorf, co-owner of Scrub Identity, which sells scrubs and other medical apparel at two stores located in Indianapolis, the tariff change will “level the playing field” for him and, he believes, other small business owners, he said.
A 2023 report by Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that advocates for US producers and manufacturers, estimates that e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart took in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue in 2022 through their networks of third-party sellers who took advantage of the loophole.
Raderstorf said almost all the goods he sells are imported. But as a small business, he doesn’t have the ability to set up a third-party network to tap into the exemption. Instead, his imported goods are all subject to applicable tariffs.
Additionally, many of the foreign manufacturers from whom he purchases goods in bulk in order to get a better price have benefited from de minimis by setting up sites to sell directly to people who could have otherwise shopped at his stores.
With de minimis gone, he feels small businesses have a better chance to compete more fairly with mega retailers and also support their local communities more.
“When somebody comes to my door and they want me to support the local football team or baseball team, I have money to do that then, and then it gets back into the community,” he told CNN. “When it goes to China, it never, ever stays in the United States — it’s gone for good.”
Since the de minimis exemption was closed for China and Hong Kong, CBP has seen packages that would have otherwise qualified for duty-free status go down from an average of 4 million a day to 1 million, White House officials told reporters Thursday.
Raderstorf is empathetic to Americans who are concerned about the increased cost of goods — but at the same time, he’s hopeful it’s “going to push them back out into their communities to meet their local retailers.”
Reports of incident were denied by Florida and Ice officials as detainees say they were beaten and teargas was fired
Richard Luscombe in MiamiFri 29 Aug 2025 12.37 EDTShare
Guards at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail deployed teargas and engaged in a mass beating of detainees to quell a mini-uprising, it was reported on Friday.
The allegations, made by at least three detainees in phone calls to Miami’s Spanish language news channel Noticias 23, come as authorities race to empty the camp in compliance with a judge’s order to close the remote tented camp in the Everglades wetlands.
The incident took place after several migrants held there began shouting for “freedom” after one received news a relative had died, according to the outlet. A team of guards then rushed in and began beating individuals indiscriminately with batons, and fired teargas at them, the detainees said.
“They’ve beaten everyone here, a lot of people have bled.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/29/alligator-alcatraz-uprising-florida-immigration
Trump cabinet officials told a federal appeals court that ruling president’s global tariffs illegal would seriously harm US foreign policy, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warning of “dangerous diplomatic embarrassment.”
The administration on Friday filed statements by Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. The court is expected to decide soon whether President Donald Trump exceeded his authority to impose tariffs under a 1977 emergency powers law.
Bessent, Lutnick and Rubio’s statements were filed in support of a request that any ruling against the administration be immediately put on hold until the US Supreme Court issues a final decision. Failing to do so would have “devastating and dire consequences,” Lutnick said.
During July 31 oral arguments before the Federal Circuit, the administration’s claims of broad tariff power were met with skepticism, suggesting the judges might side with separate challenges filed by a group of small businesses and a coalition of Democratic-led states. Friday’s filing seems to suggest the administration is worried about precisely that outcome.
The cabinet secretaries said that a ruling invalidating tariffs would undo months of negotiations with the European Union, Japan, South Korea and other nations. Bessent said the president’s ability to quickly impose tariffs had prevented other nation’s from responding in kind.
“Suspending the effectiveness of the tariffs would expose the United States to the risk of retaliation by other countries based on a perception that the United States lacks the capacity to respond rapidly to retaliation,” the Treasury secretary said.
Trump’s tariffs were ruled illegal in May by the US Court of International Trade, which found that tariff power belongs to Congress and Trump improperly claimed authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That decision was put on hold by the Federal Circuit for the appeal, allowing the administration to continue threatening tariffs during the negotiations cited by Bessent, Lutnick and Rubio.
Lutnick said tariffs had brought foreign powers to the negotiating table “in ways that no other president came close to achieving” and told the court that an adverse ruling would “send a signal to the world that the United States lacks the resolve to defend its own economic and national security.”
Rubio said Trump used his IEEPA authority in connection with highly sensitive negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and claimed there could be “severe consequences for ongoing peace negotiations and human rights abuses” if the court ruled against the administration.
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that most of President Donald Trump‘s global tariffs are illegal, striking a massive blow to the core of his aggressive trade policy.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a 7-4 ruling held that the law Trump invoked when he granted his most expansive tariffs does not actually grant him the power to impose those levies.
Trump is all but certain to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. The appellate court paused its ruling from taking effect until Oct. 14, in order to give the Trump administration time to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Friday’s ruling, which is the second straight loss for Trump in the make-or-break case.
The Trump administration has argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, empowers the president to effectively impose country-specific tariffs at any level if he deems them necessary to address a national emergency.
The U.S. Court of International Trade in late May rejected that stance and struck down Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs, including his worldwide “reciprocal” tariffs unveiled in early April. But the Federal Circuit quickly paused that ruling while Trump’s appeal played out.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/29/trump-trade-tariffs-appeals-court-ieepa.html
An image shared on X appeared to show a blurry Trump lying in the grass following an apparent fall. The post racked up more than 1.8 million views, with many users believing it was real. In the bottom-left corner, a caption read, “Trump is in the Epstein files.” Some users replied with AI-generated videos made using Grok, depicting Trump crawling across the grass — but those, too, were fake.
This isn’t the first time Trump has been the subject of AI-generated misinformation during his second term. Despite being a frequent target, Trump has publicly supported AI and even shared altered content himself — including a fake video of former President Barack Obama being arrested.
While the lawn video is fake, Trump did suffer a real stumble earlier this year ….
https://knewz.com/trump-fall-viral-video-called-into-question
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman has dismissed a lawsuit from the Trump administration that sought to block Illinois’ Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act. The administration argued the state law conflicted with federal immigration enforcement regarding the E-Verify program. The court upheld Illinois’ authority over employment regulation, reinforcing state power in this area.
Coleman argued Illinois has authority over employment and that federal immigration law weakens state powers. The Trump administration has claimed Illinois’ law violates the 1986 IRCA by sanctioning employers of unauthorized workers.
Coleman wrote, “The federal government’s broad interpretation of its power to regulate matters of immigration would swallow the historic powers of the states over employment-related issues.”
Coleman added, “A person’s immigration or work authorization status is irrelevant to determine whether an employer has violated any of the provisions of the act.”
Coleman dismissed the administration’s claims. She claimed the government’s position is “simply too speculative a basis on which to rest a finding of pre-emption.”
Coleman added that the law “is not expressly preempted by IRCA and does not intrude upon the federal government’s constitutional powers in the space of immigration and foreign affairs.”
The ruling dealt a setback to Trump’s immigration policy, affirming state authority over employment and potentially spurring similar laws elsewhere. The administration reportedly plans to appeal to the Seventh Circuit.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-suffers-major-legal-blow-in-illinois/ss-AA1Lldgs
