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Florida’s controversial immigration detention center, known as "Alligator Alcatraz" could shut down as early as next month.
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A report in the New York Times said that federal and state officials are considering closing the Everglades detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. The Associated Press reported that Gov. DeSantis said site always was meant as "temporary."
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A new directive from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, issued in secrecy, bars local law enforcement agencies across Florida from answering questions about their role in immigration enforcement, raising concerns about transparency and whether public records are being lawfully observed.
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The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office is expanding its surveillance capabilities, tapping a state fund to purchase a software platform that offers AI-powered data analysis with the stroke of a key.
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A lawyer says guards severely beat and pepper-sprayed detainees at a state-run immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades. A lawyer for two of the detainees says the beating happened after they complained about not having phone access on April 2. The lawyer says the guards taunted and then attacked the detainees. Guards punched one of her clients in the face and broke another detainee's wrist. Phone service was restored the next day without explanation. The allegations are detailed in a court filing accusing officials of not complying with a judge's order to provide proper phone access for legal calls.
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President Donald Trump has shared a video of a deadly attack at a Florida gas station, using it to justify his mass deportation agenda. Rolbert Joachin, 40, is charged with killing a woman on April 2 in Fort Myers. Trump and the Department of Homeland Security said Joachin is from Haiti. Critics argue Trump unfairly paints immigrants as criminals. Joachin reportedly confessed and is set for arraignment on May 4. Trump blames President Biden for granting Joachin Temporary Protected Status. This status allows immigrants from troubled countries to stay temporarily in the U.S., a policy Trump has criticized.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are no longer present at the Southwest International Airport (RSW) as of Sunday, April 5, according to Steve Hennigan, executive director and CEO of the Lee County Port Authority. Hennigan updated members of the Chamber of Southwest Florida with this information on Wednesday's presentation to the group about airport developments.
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The Supreme Court is casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship in a consequential case that was magnified by Trump’s norm-breaking presence in the courtroom. Conservative and liberal justices on Wednesday questioned whether Trump’s order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens comports with either the Constitution or federal law. Trump heard Solicitor General D. John Sauer face one skeptical question after another. Justices asked about the legal basis for the order and voiced more practical concerns. The Republican president spent just over an hour inside the courtroom, staying only for arguments by the government’s lawyer.
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A federal judge has ruled that the immigration detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz" must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys. U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued a preliminary injunction Friday saying officials at the Florida facility must provide access to timely, free, confidential, unmonitored, unrecorded outgoing legal calls. They must also provide at least one operable telephone for every 25 people detained there. The order also outlined information that must be made available to detained people and their attorneys in multiple languages. The lawsuit says the rules force visits to be booked three days ahead. It says delays and transfers block legal help. State and federal officials deny rights violations.
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Federal immigration officers were deployed at Southwest Florida International Airport Monday to supplement the Transportation Security Administration during a government shutdown currently in effect.
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