Patricia Mazzei | The New York Times

After months of anonymity, the leader of the unusual campaign, Michael B. Fernández, has decided to go public for the first time, explaining why he is spending millions — or even tens of millions — of his fortune on the ads.

Florida has started to pay for plane tickets for certain unauthorized immigrants to self-deport, officials said this week, in what appears to be the first such program run in part by a state.

As chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, James Uthmeier worked behind the scenes to cement the Republican governor’s national reputation as a culture warrior. DeSantis rewarded him this year by appointing him attorney general.

The first deportation flights from Florida’s new immigration detention center in the Everglades began departing this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday. About 100 of those detainees were deported directly from the center, the governor said, though he did not specify where they were taken.

MIAMI — Miami city commissioners violated the Florida Constitution when they voted last month to postpone this fall’s election to November 2026, a state judge ruled Monday, saying that such a change required voter approval.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida would normally be traversing the state this time of year, trumpeting his legislative accomplishments and the fellow Republican lawmakers who had fallen in line to achieve them. This year has been different, mostly because of one man: the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives Daniel Perez.

Immigration raids have been so rare in Puerto Rico that its only detention facility, in an office building next to a mall, can hold only about 20 detainees. Yet federal authorities in the U.S. territory have detained more than 500 people since President Donald Trump took office in January.

Two new laws that were demanded by Gov. Ron DeSantis have entangled every level of government, unnerving residents who had long considered the state an immigrant haven.

A charity meant to help people stay off public assistance was the signature project of Florida’s popular first lady, Casey DeSantis. But over three years, it had managed to raise only about $2 million to help struggling families in Florida. Then last fall, a $10 million windfall suddenly arrived from an unlikely source: a Medicaid contractor embroiled in a case of overbilling.

Officials were working on “multiple crime scenes” at the Florida State campus and dealing with at least “hundreds” of witnesses, said Chief Lawrence E. Revell of the Tallahassee Police Department, the lead investigative agency.

Will President Trump’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 Venezuelan immigrants dim Venezuelan Americans’ strong support for him?

The president-elect’s choice for attorney general is known for her charm and fealty to him.