Tag Archives: Ron DeSantis

Latin Times: Florida Republicans Remove ‘Deportation Depot’ Merchandise Over Complaints From Home Depot

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A Home Depot spokesperson said the company had reached out to the party because it had not approved the use of its branding or logo

Florida Republicans have removed merchandise related to a new migrant detention center dubbed “Deportation Depot” after Home Depot complained about being linked to it.

“The Deport Depot” merchandise had a logo that was similar to The Home Depot, including the recognizable orange box and stenciled font, according to the Miami Herald.

Home Depot spokeswoman Beth Marlowe said the company had not approved the use of its branding or logo and “reached out to the Republican Party of Florida to resolve this issue,” she said.

The outlet noted that items were still for sale as of Saturday afternoon, with items ranging from $15 to $28 and sales going as political contributions to the party. However, they were removed hours after it published a story on the matter.

Governor Ron DeSantis said last week his administration is taking steps towards holding migrants at the North Florida detention center. “It is not going to take forever, but we are also not rushing to do this right this day,” he said.

The prison is located in a rural area between Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Officials intend to hold up to 1,300 migrants at the Baker Correctional Institution, which has been closed since 2021 due to staff shortages.

The decision comes as a federal judge in Florida judge is considering whether to order the shutdown of the immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” over claims that it could cause “irreparable” harm to the Everglades area in which it is set up.

The Miami Herald noted that the groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop operations at the site. They are Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Miccosukee Tribe.

They sued the Trump and DeSantis administrations, accusing them of dodging a federal law requiring an environmental review of the site before pursuing the initiative. The injunction would stop all operations and further halt construction until there is a verdict. Florida authorities have also sought to fundraise with merchandise related to the center.

Florida Republicans Remove ‘Deportation Depot’ Merchandise Over Complaints From Home Depot
The Republican Party of Florida removed deportation-themed merchandise following complaints from Home Depot

https://www.latintimes.com/florida-republicans-remove-deportation-depot-merchandise-over-complaints-home-depot-588508

Associated Press: Judge to weigh detainees’ legal rights at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida Everglades

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A federal judge will hear arguments Monday over whether detainees at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades have been denied their legal rights.

In the second of two lawsuits challenging practices at the facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” civil rights attorneys are seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to their lawyers, which they say hasn’t happened. Florida officials dispute that claim.

The civil rights attorneys also want U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz to identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detention center so that petitions can be filed for the detainees’ bond or release. The attorneys say that hearings for their cases have been routinely canceled in federal Florida immigration courts by judges who say they don’t have jurisdiction over the detainees held in the Everglades.

“The situation at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ is so anomalous from what is typically granted at other immigration facilities,” Eunice Cho, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, said Thursday during a virtual meeting to prepare for Monday’s hearing in Miami.

But before delving into the core issues of the detainees’ rights, Ruiz has said he wants to hear about whether the lawsuit was filed in the proper jurisdiction in Miami. The state and federal government defendants have argued that even though the isolated airstrip where the facility was built is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district.

The judge has hinted that some issues may pertain to one district and other issues to the other district, but said he would decide after Monday’s hearing.

“I think we should all be prepared that, before we get into any real argument about preliminary injunctive relief, that we at least spend some time working through the venue issues,” Ruiz said Thursday.

The hearing over legal access comes as another federal judge in Miami considers whether construction and operations at the facility should be halted indefinitely because federal environmental rules weren’t followed. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses testified at a hearing that wrapped up last week. She has said she plans to issue a ruling before the order expires later this week.

Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that his administration was preparing to open a second immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot” at a state prison in north Florida. DeSantis justified building the second detention center by saying President Donald Trump’s administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants.

The state of Florida has disputed claims that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been unable to meet with their attorneys. The state’s lawyers said that since July 15, when videoconferencing started at the facility, the state has granted every request for a detainee to meet with an attorney, and in-person meetings started July 28. The first detainees arrived at the beginning of July.

But the civil rights attorneys said that even if lawyers have been scheduled to meet with their clients at the detention center, it hasn’t been in private or confidential, and it is more restrictive than at other immigration detention facilities. They said scheduling delays and an unreasonable advanced notice requirement have hindered their ability to meet with the detainees, thereby violating their constitutional rights.

Civil rights attorneys said officers are going cell-to-cell to pressure detainees into signing voluntary removal orders before they’re allowed to consult their attorneys, and some detainees have been deported even though they didn’t have final removal orders. Along with the spread of a respiratory infection and rainwater flooding their tents, the circumstances have fueled a feeling of desperation among detainees, the attorneys wrote in a court filing.

“One intellectually disabled detainee was told to sign a paper in exchange for a blanket, but was then deported subject to voluntary removal after he signed, without the ability to speak to his counsel,” the filing said.

The judge has promised a quick decision once the hearing is done.

Judge to weigh detainees’ legal rights at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida Everglades
A federal judge is considering whether detainees have been denied their legal rights at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades.

https://apnews.com/article/florida-immigration-ice-trump-alligator-alcatraz-2edf0cd03409b3526f34d4d7b33074be

Salon: Florida desensitized my family to cruel and unusual punishment

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It’s not just at Alligator Alcatraz. Horrific conditions exist throughout the Sunshine State’s prisons

In the weeks since Alligator Alcatraz opened deep within the Everglades in southern Florida, there have been mounting reports of the horrific conditions inside: Maggots in the food, sewage overflowing near beds, people having to remove fecal matter from the toilets with their bare hands due to a lack of water. To protest the conditions, detainees have launched a hunger strike, which likely continues, despite the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to deny and suppress information about it.

Construction at Alligator Alcatraz could be halted indefinitely in the wake of a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and an Indigenous tribe arguing the detention center’s development on protected wetlands violates environmental laws. Another suit brought by the ACLU claims detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated. Florida seems undeterred. The state is planning to build a second detention center at a correctional institution that was shuttered in 2021 after numerous reports of excessive violence and abuse of inmates by guards. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling the facility “the deportation depot.”

This scary reality is snowballing in its brutality as President Donald Trump and his administration, Republican politicians and large swaths of the American population continue to broaden the cultural profile of who we deem dangerous enough to lock up. Several states are developing similar concentration camps, including one at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and an Indiana facility dubbed “The Speedway Slammer.” I’m not surprised. 

I’m also not surprised that Florida is leading the way in building these facilities. The U.S. has the largest incarcerated population in the world, and Florida locks up a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country on earth. To date, no other state has spent as much effort collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the second Trump administration. Following DeSantis’ special session on immigration in January, the Sunshine State passed laws requiring local jurisdictions to enter into agreements with ICE and offering a $1,000 bonus to local officers participating in ICE raids and operations. Immigration detention in Florida quadrupled in less than six months. As the state runs out of space, Florida jails are being used to house detainees, exacerbating overcrowded conditions and forcing people to sleep on the floor. When ICE staff opposed the plans to use Florida jails as ICE detention facilities because it would violate current federal regulations and standards, a local sheriff dismissed the claims, calling them “woke.” 

Prisoners in the Florida Department of Corrections system are often held under many of the same inhumane conditions present at Alligator Alcatraz. My uncle is one of them. 

I’ve visited him in facilities up and down the state: In detention centers; maximum security units; psych wards; private correctional institutions; facilities with barbed wire fences, search dogs and rooftops decorated with armed guards; places in towns so small the only store for miles is a Piggly Wiggly.

I don’t pretend that many of Florida’s prisoners are not guilty of the crimes they’ve been charged with, and I won’t downplay the severity of the crimes committed — my uncle’s included. Unlike the detainees held in Alligator Alcatraz, they have ostensibly been given due process, though we could argue about the justice system’s version of the right that is often applied to Black, brown and poor people. Regardless of the circumstances, however, I believe every person deserves to be treated with dignity and humanity. I don’t believe that violence and cruelty has ever nudged anyone toward a better version of themselves.

One Wednesday in May, I woke up to frantic voicemails from my mom. My uncle had been stabbed multiple times, and she wasn’t sure if he was alive or dead. It had happened two days earlier, but she’d just found out that morning from a fellow prisoner’s girlfriend. Details were spotty. My uncle was an inmate at Dade Correctional Institution, a facility in south Miami deemed the “deadliest in Florida” by the Miami Herald following an investigation into a record number of inmate deaths in 2017. An earlier investigation into the facility revealed that officers had made “sport” of tormenting mentally ill inmates, including forcing inmates into a specially rigged, scalding hot shower as punishment for unruly behavior. 

My uncle had been transferred to the facility from another prison a few years ago because Dade Correctional Institution has an Americans With Disabilities Act unit and he, a lifer, has gone deaf from decades of loud, echoing conditions. 

Since he’s deaf, he didn’t hear the man — or men — coming up on him with the knife. Despite our many requests, the Florida Department of Corrections has not gotten him a hearing aid that doesn’t beep loudly in his ears, so he prefers to stay in his own, soundless world. 

I imagined him walking into the same yard where we’ve sat for visits, thinking about how he’ll get to pet his favorite rescue dog later, the one corrections officers  bring in for training. He prefers the dogs to humans, saying they’re the only redeeming thing about the place. In my mind, he was thinking about the dog when he was surrounded by the other men. He was thinking about the dog as the knife pierced his skin, plunging into the back of his neck and then into his ear. I imagined and reimagined the scene, watching him get caught by surprise, his eyes widening at the pain. 

Did he fall to the ground? Call out for help? The woman who called my mom said four other inmates were also stabbed, and that corrections officers were involved, but it’s impossible to verify. 

There are so many questions. Did the officers provide the knife? Join in on the stabbing? Simply look the other way?

My mom and siblings and I called and emailed each of the prison’s classification officers, coordinators and wardens. This was not the first time in my uncle’s 30-year incarceration that we’ve had to hound the Florida Department of Corrections for answers about his well-being. It was not the first time we’ve received calls from another inmate’s girlfriend or relative about my uncle. There was the time, a few years ago at another facility, when he was taken to the medical unit for lesions in his stomach. He was kept on a gurney in a hallway for days without treatment. He was in so much pain he thought he might die, so he had a friend get in touch with us to let us know. 

Then, like now, we called and tried to get information from the staff and were given the run around. The person with answers was always on break. The warden was never available. We were treated like nuisances for caring. They informed me I was not on “the list” to receive information, a bold-faced lie. I pleaded with anyone I could get on the line. They gave me one-word answers and told me to calm down in an almost bored tone. I cried, begging them to have some compassion, to imagine it was their loved one who was hurt. 

I canceled a few work calls. Without thinking much about it, I texted my co-worker and told her my uncle was stabbed. She expressed alarm and concern. I kept calling, relaying information to my mom and siblings. I reached out to the media, including the writer who investigated Dade Correctional Institution years ago. She recommended that I request copies of my uncle’s inmate file, which is public record, and any incident reports involving his name. I did this and got nothing. I tried again — still, nothing. Unfortunately, none of this was newsworthy, and my sources inside were not considered credible, so the reporters I spoke with didn’t have much to go on. I reached out to an advocacy group and received a reply three months later stating that, due to a lack of resources and too much demand, they could not help me.

A coordinator at the prison eventually told us my uncle was alive, that he had received medical treatment and was being held in solitary confinement for his safety. We were given nothing else. When I asked why we weren’t notified of the incident, I was told that it’s the inmate’s responsibility to notify loved ones — as if he could call us after being stabbed multiple times, and while he was in solitary confinement with a disability that makes it difficult to communicate by phone. 

Several weeks later, my uncle was transferred to another facility at the opposite end of the state. He had 28-day-old sutures he contemplated removing himself because they itched so badly. My fury was exhausting. My family and I stopped talking about the incident and went back to business as usual, putting money on his commissary, sending him books and figuring out how to get messages to him via the new facility’s byzantine communications systems. I dropped any hope of trying to get information about what happened, even from my uncle, who, speaking on a recorded line, just said, “Shit happens in here.” The upside, for him: At least the new facility has air conditioning.

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, including the denial of necessary medical care for inmates. But thanks to the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1996, it’s incredibly challenging for inmates to bring suits against this treatment, and just about 1% of all cases actually win. One ongoing lawsuit against Dade Correctional Institution concerns the lack of air conditioning that led to four inmates dying last year in Miami, where heat indexes can rise up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The Florida Department of Corrections sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the deaths were not caused by heat, but a federal judge allowed the lawsuit to proceed. The majority of Florida’s prison housing units are not air-conditioned.

I imagine the detainees in Alligator Alcatraz without adequate shelter or air conditioning in the middle of hurricane season in a South Florida swamp. I think of the cavalier way Republican lawmakers have denied claims about the detention camp’s conditions. I think of Isidro Perez, the 75-year-old Cuban man who died in ICE custody at the Krome Detention Center in Miami in July. I think of the elderly prisoner in a wheelchair who begged for help in the heat at Dade Correctional Institution and died after being refused medical attention. I think of all the lives we have lost to the normalization of cruel punishment, and how many more there are to lose. 

Over the last 50 years, our bureaucratic desensitization to incarceration has grown largely unchecked. Prisons are built quietly, out of sight from the public. Visiting my uncle, regardless of where he is, requires a long drive, countless forms and hours waiting, adherence to seemingly arbitrary rules that differ from place to place and can change at any moment without notice. The point is isolation, to forget about these people. To systematically dehumanize them — first prisoners, then immigrants — and to watch as the public starts to believe they don’t deserve to be treated like humans.

Florida desensitized my family to cruel and unusual punishment
It’s not just at Alligator Alcatraz. Horrific conditions exist throughout the Sunshine State’s prisons

https://www.salon.com/2025/08/17/florida-desensitized-my-family-to-cruel-and-unusual-punishment

Latin Times: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Could Be Shut Down, But Not Due To Its Harsh Conditions For Migrants

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A judge is set to hear arguments to decide whether to halt operations due to environmental concerns

The Florida migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” could potentially be shut down due to environmental concerns, with a judge set to hear arguments on the matter on Wednesday.

ABC News detailed that there will be an evidentiary hearing over whether to block operations at the facility because construction allegedly by passed the environmental impact studies required by the federal government.

The outlet added that the hearing will be limited to environmental issues, but testimonies are also expected to further illustrate conditions at the facility. Plaintiffs are alleging that operations are endangering the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Big Cypress Area, considered ecologically sensitive and protected. They hold threatened species including the Everglade snail kite, the Florida panther, wood stork and the Florida bonneted bat.

The Miccosukee Indian Tribe, which has leased land next to Alligator Alcatraz, joined the lawsuit last month, claiming that it threatens to damage tribal villages.

“The hasty transformation of the Site into a mass detention facility, which includes the installation of housing units, construction of sanitation and food services systems, industrial high-intensity lighting infrastructure, diesel power generators, substantial fill material altering the natural terrain, and provision of transportation logistics (including apparent planned use of the runway to receive and deport detainees) poses clear environmental impacts,” reads a passage of the lawsuit.

Florida Department of Emergency Management executive director Kevin Guthrie, named as a defendant in the case, said the state is not subjected to the required regulations. He added that the environmental impact is low because the location was already an active airfield.

Advocates are also calling for the facility to be shut down as they decry “unlivable” conditions that include mosquitoe-ridden units and lights being on all the time.

“Detention conditions are unlivable,” Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said in a press conference in late July, as reported by NBC News.

In another passage of the conference, Rafael Collado, an inmate being held there, said through his wife’s mobile phone that the place is “like a dog cage.” He added that poor sanitation and floodwater from recent storms led him to get fungus on his feet.

Collado went on to claim detainees are stripped naked when moved between cells and that he has no schedule to take blood pressure medication. He was then told by a guard to end the call.

Juan Palma, another detainee, told the outlet that he feels like his life is in danger. He added he feels in a constant “state of torture.”

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Could Be Shut Down, But Not Due To Its Harsh Conditions For Migrants
The Florida migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” could be shut down due to environmental concerns

https://www.latintimes.com/alligator-alcatraz-could-shut-down-not-due-its-harsh-conditions-migrants-588047

Newsweek: Ron DeSantis responds to judge ordering halt to Alligator Alcatraz

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said operations at an immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” are “ongoing” after a federal judge on Thursday ordered a two-week halt to construction there while she considers whether it violates environmental laws.

“Operations at Alligator Alcatraz are ongoing and deportations are continuing,” DeSantis wrote in a post on X on Thursday.

Alex Lanfranconi, DeSantis’ communications director, wrote that Thursday’s ruling “will have no impact on immigration enforcement in Florida. Alligator Alcatraz will remain operational, continuing to serve as a force multiplier to enhance deportation efforts.”

Why It Matters

The facility, repurposing the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, was hastily built two months ago and can hold up to 3,000 detainees in temporary tent structures.

The Trump administration has touted it as representing its hardline stance on immigration enforcement and border security. But critics say it runs afoul of environmental laws and that detainees are forced to endure unsafe, unsanitary and inhumane living conditions.

What To Know

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled the center can continue to operate and hold those detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but temporarily barred any new construction at the center.

Her order bars the installation of any new industrial-style lighting, as well as any paving, filling, excavating or fencing. It also prohibits any other site expansion, including placing or erecting any additional buildings, tents, dormitories or other residential or administrative facilities.

Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe asked Williams to issue a preliminary injunction to halt operations and further construction at the center, arguing the center threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars’ worth of environmental restoration.

Their lawsuit argued that the detention facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental impact of major construction projects.

Attorneys for Florida argued during a hearing on Thursday that although the center would be holding federal detainees, the construction and operation are entirely under the state’s purview and that NEPA does not apply.

But attorneys for the environmental groups pushed back, saying the purpose of the facility is for immigration enforcement and that it wouldn’t exist if the federal government did not want a facility to hold detainees.

Williams said the detention facility was, at a minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government.

What People Are Saying

Eve Samples, executive director at Friends of the Everglades, said in a statement: “We’re pleased that the judge saw the urgent need to put a pause on additional construction, and we look forward to advancing our ultimate goal of protecting the unique and imperiled Everglades ecosystem from further damage caused by this mass detention facility.”

Talbert Cypress, the chairman of the Miccosukee Tribe, said in a statement posted on social media: “We welcome the court’s decision to pause construction on this deeply concerning project. The detention facility threatens land that is not only environmentally sensitive but sacred to our people. While this order is temporary, it is an important step in asserting our rights and protecting our homeland. The Miccosukee Tribe will continue to stand for our culture, our sovereignty, and the Everglades.”

President Donald Trump said while touring the facility in July: “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation.”

What’s Next

The temporary restraining order will be in place for the next two weeks while the ongoing preliminary injunction hearing continues.

Meanwhile, a second lawsuit brought by civil rights group says detainees’ rights are being violated. A hearing in that case is scheduled for August 18.

Ron DeSantis responds to judge ordering halt to Alligator Alcatraz
A federal judge ordered a two-week halt to construction at the site while she considers whether it violates environmental laws.

https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-judge-alligator-alcatraz-2110632

Miami Herald: ‘Locking People in a Swamp’: Trump Addresses Detention Center Outrage

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Last month, President Donald Trump attended the opening of Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center, led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. The facility has been designed to hold illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, costing an estimated $450 million annually.

Critics have warned that the flood-prone wetland site will fail to provide adequate humanitarian conditions.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) said, “They are locking people in a swamp in extreme heat with no clear plan for humane conditions.”

Trump stated, “It might be as good as the real Alcatraz.” He added, “It’s a little controversial, but I couldn’t care less.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “Welcome to Alligator Alcatraz, I like that name by the way.” Environmental groups have sued to block the center, citing violations and risks to wildlife habitats.

Democrats and advocates have criticized the project for threatening local ecosystems. Friends of the Everglades Executive Director Eve Samples said, “This site is more than 96% wetlands, surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve, and is habitat for the endangered Florida panther and other iconic species.”

Samples added, “This scheme is not only cruel, it threatens the Everglades ecosystem that state and federal taxpayers have spent billions to protect.”

DeSantis and Florida Republicans have defended the center as key to Trump’s tough immigration stance, arguing his policies have deterred illegal crossings. They warned migrants of Florida’s extreme weather risks.

‘Locking People in a Swamp’: Trump Addresses Detention Center Outrage
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/locking-people-in-a-swamp-trump-addresses-detention-center-outrage/ss-AA1KgwQq

Columbus Ledger Enquirer: Democratic Mayor Signs ICE Deal Amid GOP Threats

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Orange County, Florida, Democratic Mayor Jerry Demings has signed a cooperation agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following threats from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier. The agreement allows local law enforcement to detain and transfer immigration violators to federal custody. Demings noted that the decision aims to protect the County Commission from potential removal.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the controversial immigration agreement 5-2, prompting internal tensions and public backlash. Activists had urged leaders to reject cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Demings raised concerns regarding staffing and resources, noting over 200 vacancies for correctional officers. He stated that the county has never received a request to transport ICE detainees.

Commissioners Nicole Wilson and Kelly Martinez Semrad opposed the agreement, citing concerns over government coercion. Activists have urged resistance as officials have grappled with legal ambiguities.

Semrad said, “By signing the agreement, we thwarted the calamity of the potential removal from office of our entire Commission.”

County Attorney Jeff Newton stated, “Legal requirements for local governments to support federal immigration law are vague.” He added, “I call that the sort of catch-all phrase — ‘best efforts.’ It is deliberately, I believe, ambiguous.”

So much for democracy at the local level, as Trump’s fascism spreads it tentacles downward.

Democratic Mayor Signs ICE Deal Amid GOP Threats

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/democratic-mayor-signs-ice-deal-amid-gop-threats/ss-AA1KgBnc

Another article on the subject:

Florida mayor shares startling explanation for his collaboration with ICE
Jerry Demings said an agreement to collaborate with Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown was signed “under protest and in extreme duress.”

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/florida-ice-cooperation-orange-county-demings-rcna222984

L.A. Times: Environmentalists’ lawsuit to halt Alligator Alcatraz filed in wrong court, Florida official says

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Florida’s top emergency official asked a federal judge on Monday to resist a request by environmentalists to halt an immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz in the middle of the Florida Everglades because their lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district. Decisions about the facility also were made in Tallahassee and Washington, Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a court filing.

“And all the detention facilities, all the buildings, and all the paving at issue are sited in Collier County, not Miami-Dade,” Guthrie said.

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in Florida’s southern district last month, asking for the project being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades to be halted because the process didn’t follow state and federal environmental laws. A virtual hearing was being held Monday on the lawsuit.

Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity.

Alligator Auschwitz is a disgrace and should be shut down.

Environmentalists’ lawsuit to halt Alligator Alcatraz filed in wrong court, Florida official says
Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials have defended it to support President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-07-21/environmentalists-lawsuit-to-halt-alligator-alcatraz-filed-in-wrong-court-florida-official-says

The Times: We’re caged like chickens, say Italians in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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Gaetano Mirabella Costa and Fernando Artese plead for help after detention in Florida

The families of two Italians held in President Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention centre have denounced the harsh conditions of their incarceration in Florida and appealed to the Italian authorities for help to get them out.

“We’re in cages like chickens, 32 people with three open toilets, everyone can see everything,” Gaetano Mirabella Costa, 45, told Italian state television in a telephone interview from the prison. “I don’t know what I’m accused of and I can’t speak with a lawyer or even a judge. Can the Italian authorities please help me to get out of this nightmare?”

The Italian, who was born in Taormina, Sicily, and had been living in the US for ten years, had recently served a short prison sentence for assault, drug possession and domestic violence and was transferred to the new detention centre on July 9.

His mother, Rosanna Vitale, said her son had been taken to court with his feet and hands shackled, “like a dog”. The only positive thing was that he was allowed to queue for a telephone to make collect calls from the prison, she said.

“The situation is very tough,” she added. “He said, ‘Mum, I haven’t seen the sun for ten days.’ We still haven’t been contacted by anyone to deal with this situation but we will do everything possible to get him back — we hope soon.”

Another Italian, Fernando Artese, 63, had been living in Florida and overstayed a 90-day visa by almost ten years. He was transferred to the prison at Dade-Collier, in the Everglades swamps, after being stopped by police on June 25.

In March Artese, who has joint Italian and Argentinian nationality, had been fined for driving without a licence. His family said he missed his traffic court date because he feared being detained.

Artese’s family had joined him in 2018 — his wife, Monica Riveira, 62, came on a student visa and his teenage daughter, Carla, legally accompanied her. They had been living in the Florida city of Hialeah, where Artese ran a company installing cameras, and were stopped while attempting to leave the country by driving their mobile home to Argentina.

“This is a concentration camp. They treat us like criminals — it’s a pursuit of humiliation,” Artese told the Tampa Bay Times in a phone interview. “We’re all workers and people fighting for our families.”

Carla Artese, 19, has raised more than $7,000 towards a target of $10,000 on an appeal for her father on the GoFundMe website.

“This year, we were trying to leave the USA, and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] got him and sent him to Alligator Alcatraz, where they treat them like criminals and [they] have no rights,” she said in the appeal. “They haven’t given him any information about his case or any right to an attorney. Not to mention, they haven’t added him to the system yet, so he doesn’t even appear like an inmate anywhere.”

She said her father wanted “to self-deport when they let him”, adding: “He is a hard worker who only wanted to leave the country with his family after paying taxes and working hard the whole time he’s been here!”

Carla told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera her father was lucky because he had previously been detained in another institution and that had given his family the chance to bring him his medicines. “Many don’t have medicine and there’s not much food,” she said. “They can’t sleep at night because the lights are on 24 hours a day. They can’t see the sun, they can’t go outside.”

The migrant detention centre, which has a capacity of 3,000, was built within weeks under the direction of Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, using emergency powers. Trump visited a few weeks ago and joked that escaping prisoners would have to run in zig-zag lines to avoid the local alligators.

Opposition politicians have criticised Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, for allegedly prioritising her friendship with Trump over the rights of her imprisoned compatriots. “Will the government of patriots continue to play majordomo to Trump or does it intend to defend the rights of an Italian citizen?” asked Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister.

Angelo Bonelli, an MP with the Green and Left Alliance, said the government was always ready to curry favour with Washington. “It remains silent even in the face of an obvious violation of human rights,” he said. “Patriots in words, vassals in reality.”

We’re caged like chickens, say Italians in ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
What is Alligator Alcatraz? Gaetano Mirabella Costa and Fernando Artese plead for help after detention in Florida

https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/what-is-alligator-alcatraz-italians-gz2gcqrbd

Miami Herald: Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns

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Hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz, a detention facility state and federal officials have characterized as a place where “vicious” and “deranged psychopaths” are sent before they get deported, records obtained by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times show.

Mixed among the detainees accused and convicted of crimes are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States. The data is based on a list of more than 700 people who are either being held under tents and in chain link cells at Florida’s pop-up detention center in the Everglades or appear slated for transfer there.

A third of the detainees have criminal convictions. Their charges range from attempted murder to illegal re-entry to traffic violations. Hundreds of others only have pending charges. The records do not disclose the nature of the alleged offenses, and reporters have not independently examined each individual’s case.

The information — subject to change as the population of the facility fluctuates — suggests that scores of migrants without criminal records have been targeted in the state and federal dragnet to catch and deport immigrants living illegally in Florida.

Nationally, nearly half of detainees in ICE custody as of late June were being held for immigration violations and did not have a criminal conviction or charge, according to data from Syracuse University. Polls have shown that American voters support the deportation of criminals but are less supportive of the arrest and detention of otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants. South Florida’s congressional representatives have called on the Trump administration to be more compassionate in its efforts to round up and deport immigrants with status issues.

“That place is supposedly for the worst criminals in the U.S.,” said Walter Jara, the nephew of a 56-year-old Nicaraguan man taken to the facility following a traffic stop in Palm Beach County. The list obtained by the Herald/Times states that his uncle, Denis Alcides Solis Morales, has immigration violations and makes no mention of convictions or pending criminal charges. Jara said his uncle arrived here legally in 2023 under a humanitarian parole program, and has a pending asylum case.

Reporters sent the list to officials at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the absence of a criminal charge in the United States doesn’t mean migrants detained at the site have clean hands.

“Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,” McLaughlin told the Herald/Times. “Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally. It is not an accurate description to say they are ‘non-criminals.’”

McLaughlin said the Trump administration is “putting the American people first by removing illegal aliens who pose a threat to our communities” and said “70% of ICE arrests have been of criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.”

She added that the state of Florida oversees the facility, not ICE, an argument echoed in court by Thomas P. Giles, a top official involved in enforcement and removal operations.

“The ultimate decision of who to detain” at Alligator Alcatraz “belongs to Florida,” he wrote as part of the federal government’s response to a lawsuit challenging the detention facility on environmental grounds.

A spokesperson for ICE referred reporters to Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, which oversees the detention facility. The Florida agency did not respond to a request for comment.

The records offer a glimpse into who is being sent to Alligator Alcatraz. The network of trailers and tents, built on an airstrip off of U.S. Highway 41, has been operating for a little more than a week. It is already housing about 750 immigrant detainees, a figure that state officials shared with Democratic state Sen. Carlos Guillermo-Smith, one of several Florida lawmakers who toured the site on Saturday afternoon.

The records obtained by the Herald/Times show detainees are from roughly 40 countries around the world. Immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba made up about half the list. Ages range from 18 to 73. One is listed as being from the United States. Reporters were unable to locate his family or attorney.

Lawmakers who visited the facility Saturday said they saw detainees wearing wristbands, which state officials explained were meant to classify the severity of their civil or criminal violations. The colors included yellow, orange and red — with yellow being less severe infractions and red meaning more severe offenses, said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando.

When the detention facility opened on July 1, President Donald Trump visited the site and said it would soon house “some of the most vicious people on the planet.” He and Gov. Ron DeSantis have said the detention center is creating more space to house undocumented immigrants who otherwise would have to be released due to a lack of beds.

The state has refused to make public a roster of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz, instead offering selective information about who is being detained there. On Friday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office released the names of six men convicted of crimes to Fox News, and later to the Herald/Times upon request. The charges against the men — all included on the list obtained by the Herald/Times — ranged from murder to burglary.

“This group of murderers, rapists, and gang members are just a small sample of the deranged psychopaths that Florida is helping President Trump and his administration remove from our country,” Uthmeier’s spokesman, Jeremy Redfern, said in a statement.

One of those men is Jose Fortin, a 46-year-old from Honduras who was arrested in 2017 on attempted murder charges. Records show Fortin was deported to his home country in August 2019. A month later, he re-entered the country illegally. Border patrol agents picked him up in Texas.

Another man identified as a detainee by Uthmeier’s office, Luis Donaldo Corado, was convicted of burglary and petty theft after he was accused of being a “peeping tom” — watching a woman through her apartment window in Coral Gables. And Eddy Lopez Jemot, a 57-year-old Cuban man, was accused of killing a woman and setting her house on fire in Key Largo in 2017. The state dropped homicide charges against him in a plea deal this year and convicted him of arson.

But other detainees left off the attorney general’s list face lesser charges — such as traffic violations, according to attorneys and family members. An attorney told the Herald/Times her client was detained by federal immigration agents after a routine-check in at an ICE field office. Some are asylum seekers.

Solís Morales, the 56-year-old Nicaraguan, ended up in Alligator Alcatraz after he was unexpectedly detained on his way to a construction job in Palm Beach County on July 1, according to Jara, his nephew. He was a passenger in a Ford F-150 when the driver was pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol for an unsecured load, Jara told the Herald/Times on Saturday.

Solís Morales arrived in the United States from Nicaragua in 2023 under humanitarian parole and has a pending asylum case, Jara said.

Miami immigration attorney Regina de Moraes said she’s representing a 37-year-old Brazilian man being held at Alligator Alcatraz who entered the United States lawfully on a tourist visa in 2022 and then applied for asylum, which is pending.

She said the man, who has a five-year work permit and owns a solar panel business in the Orlando area, was arrested on a DUI charge in 2024. While he was attending a probation hearing on June 3, he was detained by the Orange County Sheriff’s office, which is participating in a federal immigration program known as 287(g). He was transferred from there to Alligator Alcatraz on Thursday, according to information provided to her by the man’s sister.

De Moraes, a seasoned immigration lawyer, said she doesn’t understand why the Brazilian man was transferred to the state-operated detention facility in the Everglades. She asked the Herald/Times not to identify her client.

“He’s not subject to mandatory detention and he’s not subject to removal because he has a pending asylum application,” de Moraes told the Herald/Times. “He has one DUI and he’s not a threat to others. This is ridiculous. This is a waste of time and money. … He’s not the kind of person they should be picking up.”

“They should be picking up people with sexual battery or armed robbery records,” de Moraes said.

Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns
Descriptions of the Everglades detention center as a place for violent criminals tell only part of the story.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article310541810.html