Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Friday that approximately 100 undocumented immigrants had been deported from Alligator Alcatraz, an airport next to the detention facility, and that the frequency of departing planes was rising.
In the midst of litigation surrounding the contentious location, DeSantis and other state officials vehemently defended Florida’s attempts to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts while speaking to media outside the Everglades detention center.
We are here today to state that this was never meant to be a situation in which we merely twiddle our thumbs while individuals are kept. The goal, according to DeSantis, is to make this a location that can support more deportations of illegal aliens, both in terms of frequency and quantity.
According to DeSantis, U.S. Department of Homeland Security personnel have taken hundreds of illegal immigrants out of the prison. From the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, some 100 detainees were sent straight to foreign nations, while an unknown number were sent to processing facilities in other states, DeSantis said.
DeSantis continued, “We anticipate that the cadence (of the flights) will increase.”
The facility, which was hastily constructed late last month, is intended to address a federal detention-bed shortfall for those who are in the country illegally, according to state officials. According to Kevin Guthrie, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, the facility can accommodate 2,000 people and could be expanded to accommodate up to 4,000 detainees if needed, he said Friday.
In a federal class-action lawsuit, attorneys for detainees claim that some of the individuals housed inside the compound have not been ordered to leave the United States and have not used up all of their legal options. People detained at the complex illegally are allegedly denied access to legal counsel and are unable to challenge their imprisonment, according to the lawsuit.
Guthrie stated on Friday that inmates should have access to legal counsel on-site on Monday and that officials were scheduled to follow up on that nearly around-the-clock if necessary.
In response to Guthrie’s remarks, a representative for the American Civil Liberties Union stated that inmates still face serious due process issues, which the group hopes the federal judge would take into account.
According to a statement from Keisha Multford, deputy director of communications for the ACLU of Florida, it should never take legal action, public uproar, or media attention to guarantee that those being held in cages get the opportunity to consult with an attorney.
DeSantis said on Friday that those detained at the compound are scheduled to be deported after receiving what is known as a final removal order from federal authorities.
This should be a rather easy procedure. Either you are entitled to be here, or you are not. However, according to DeSantis, they have been ordered to leave the nation.
Multford stated that it is completely untrue to say that every individual held at the prison has received final removal orders. She noted that detainees’ families and attorneys had confirmed to this on several occasions.
According to Multford, people who have removal orders are still entitled to due process and legal representation in order to contest them.
Additionally, Guthrie vehemently rejected on Friday that the facility’s captives were not receiving proper medical treatment.
When questioned about the problem, he responded, “Absolute crap.”
However, the experience of her client Michael Borrego Fernandez, according to Sanctuary of the South lawyer Catherine Blankenship, offers a different tale.
The lawsuit alleges that Borrego, a Cuban native, suffered severe bleeding this month and was taken from the institution to a hospital. According to the lawsuit, Borrego, one of the listed plaintiffs in the case, returned to the detention facility a few days later without receiving the necessary medications.
He has complained of persistent bleeding, blood in his stool, and a significant need for postoperative care that he is not getting. In an email to The News Service of Florida, Blankenship said, “It is shameful that the government opened this facility without ensuring access to counsel or even the basic ability to responsibly care for human beings held there.” Blankenship also said that the facility ought to be closed.
DeSantis and other state officials are urging those who are in the country illegally to leave before they are arrested as the dragnet of undocumented immigrants grows.
DeSantis cited a program that the Trump administration introduced in May that enables individuals to voluntarily register for self-deportation through a federal mobile app, earn $1,000 upon their return to their home nations, and have their travel costs covered.
The executive director of the recently established State Board of Immigration Enforcement, Larry Keefe, encouraged individuals to self-deport rather than end up at a facility like Alligator Alcatraz.
Should you fail to do so, you will very likely find yourself in a similar situation, if not in this same location, and you will remain here for the remainder of the time that you are exercising your right to due process. “While you wait years or months for the due process to occur, you will not be able to live freely in our communities,” Keefe stated.
Additionally, Guthrie denied claims that the plant would negatively impact the Everglades and the nearby Big Cypress National Preserve. In a federal complaint, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity claimed that federal and state officials had broken federal law by not carrying out an environmental impact analysis prior to the construction of the plant.
Guthrie stated on Friday that the facility is around by a natural buffer of 39 square miles and that the taxiway, which is currently being utilized for deporting immigrants, used to handle 100 flights per day.
The governor is suddenly destroying the environment. Guthrie informed reporters that there are significantly fewer than 100 flights arriving and departing from this facility each day.
The governor’s tour of the facility, however, highlights its danger to the delicate Everglades ecosystem, according to Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.
At least 20 acres of new pavement have been placed without the legally needed environmental impact review, jet fuel is being trucked into the site, and human excrement is being trucked out. “We’ve taken legal action because this is an Everglades disaster that is happening right in front of our eyes,” Samples said in a statement.
