Immigrants

At a meeting at FGCU, Florida Board of Governors bars undocumented students from state's public universities by a vote on an amendment to admissions regulations.

A pair of private, for-profit companies involved in the controversial operations and medical care at Alligator Alcatraz are positioning themselves as potential contractors for at least five new adult detention facilities sought by the Florida Highway Patrol.

A day after a protest rally in Fort Myers decried the alleged housing of immigration and customs enforcement agents at area hotels, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the arrest of an undocumented immigrant who allegedly assaulted an ICE agent in Fort Myers Aug. 19.

Across Florida, law enforcement officers have been asked to gather names, photographs, addresses and other personal information about people they suspect may be in the country without authorization and upload them to a centralized surveillance database during the course of their routine job duties.

Undocumented students wouldn’t be admitted to the state’s public universities under a proposal reviewed by the State University System Board of Governors on Thursday.

As we approach the country’s 250th anniversary, immigration is top of mind for many people — including Naples artist Mally Khorasantchi. Her large abstract compositions are a personal reaction to something that’s happened to her.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has met with fierce resistance in Democratic-led sanctuary cities, where police are forbidden from assisting and many locals view the masked federal agents as an invading force. That hasn’t been the case in Republican-led Florida, though, where about 350 state and local agencies have signed on to take part in the crackdown. Although Florida immigration arrests have more than tripled during Trump's second term, the surge has largely flown under the public’s radar, as many start as run-of-the-mill police traffic stops, the public seems more supportive of the initiative, and participating state and local agencies are roundly rejecting requests for arrest records and body camera video at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost visited the detention center on Tuesday. He said based on what he saw, he believes the center is winding down.

An expected $58.2 million initial payment is a fraction of the state’s spending on the Everglades facility.

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."