Alligator Alcatraz

Florida’s emergency managers spent more than $405 million in taxpayer dollars in six months to fight illegal immigration, but that doesn’t just include law enforcement, state spending records show: It covers private jet flights, restaurant meals, and badges.

Prolonged detention has become more common in President Donald Trump’s second term, at least partly because a new policy generally prohibits immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation cases wind through backlogged courts.

The protestors want state and federal authorities to close the controversial immigrant detention center, free detainees and end “the immoral” apprehension of immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Attorneys representing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have for months worked to cast doubt on the grant award, describing plans to provide federal funding as “unrealized” and “legally insufficient.”

Meanwhile, government attorneys say a reimbursement agreement isn’t even finalized.

Former detainees are set to testify about conditions at a Florida immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz." A federal judge is considering whether they have sufficient access to the legal system. Civil rights attorneys are seeking a temporary injunction to ensure detainees at the state-run Everglades facility have the same access to attorneys as those in federally-run centers.

State and federal officials who had been scheduled to attend the conference in Naples this week said Wednesday they would not attend, leaving organizers scrambling to replace speakers.

The Florida agency in charge of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility must release all texts, emails, and other communications with federal authorities about how the migrant center was set up and run, a Leon County judge ruled Tuesday.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of three court challenges to an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades has ended. According to his attorneys, the detainee agreed to be removed from the U.S. and will soon leave the country for Chile.

Environmental groups claim federal and state officials withheld evidence about funding for an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. The facility, known as "Alligator Alcatraz," remains open in part because an appellate court relied on arguments that Florida hadn't sought federal reimbursement, which would trigger federal environmental law requirements.

The circuit judge wrote that the laws allow access to facilities such as state prisons and county jails — but not to the immigrant-detention center run by the state.

Attorneys for detainees at a Florida immigration detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz” want a federal judge to visit the facility. They argue this will help determine if detainees have sufficient access to legal counsel.