23 h. ago ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration jail can stay open, appeals court says

Move puts on hold federal judge’s order last month to close Florida immigration facility An appellate panel on Thursday put on hold an order to wind down operations at the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration center in the Florida Everglades.Last month a federal judge in Miami had ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious immigration jail within 60 days, and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down. Continue reading...

Events

40 h. ago Louisiana prison chosen for immigration detainees due to its notoriety, says Noem

Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said she hoped it would encourage people in the US illegally to self-deportThe Trump administration purposefully chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday.A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the “worst of the worst” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, “Louisiana Lockup.” Continue reading...

Events

43 h. ago A notorious Louisiana prison was chosen for immigrant detainees to urge self

Federal authorities say they've deliberately chosen a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people living illegally in the U.S. to self-deport

Events

4 d. ago Prison chaplain at ICE facility in Pennsylvania accused of sexually abusing immigration detainee

Exclusive: “The system absolutely failed our client,” attorney Trina Realmuto told The Independent

Events

7 d. ago Detainees report alleged uprising at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’: ‘A lot of people have bled’

Reports of incident were denied by Florida and Ice officials as detainees say they were beaten and teargas was firedGuards at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail deployed teargas and engaged in a mass beating of detainees to quell a mini-uprising, it was reported on Friday.The allegations, made by at least three detainees in phone calls to Miami’s Spanish language news channel Noticias 23, come as authorities race to empty the camp in compliance with a judge’s order to close the remote tented camp in the Everglades wetlands. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ to be vacated in compliance with court order to shut it

Reported email by Florida official confirms state will shutter prison though governor Ron DeSantis has appealedFlorida’s immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will probably be empty of detainees within days, a state official has said, indicating compliance with a judge’s order last week that the facility must close.The Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s administration appealed the order by federal court judge Kathleen Williams that the tented detention camp in the Florida Everglades, which attracted criticism for its harsh conditions, must be dismantled within 60 days. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Judge halts Trump administration from deporting Kilmar Ábrego García for now

Maryland man, back in US after being wrongly deported to El Salvador, detained again and faces deportation to UgandaKilmar Ábrego García – who has been thrust into the middle of an acrimonious deportation saga by the second Trump administration – has been detained after reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in Baltimore on Monday, but a judge later ruled that he cannot be deported for now.His detainment comes just three days after his release from criminal custody in Tennessee.Shrai Popat contributed reporting Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Ice is processing Kilmar Ábrego García for deportation, Kristi Noem says – US politics live

US homeland security secretary says Ábrego García is being processed for deportation but doesn’t say where he will be sent amid concerns he will go to UgandaKilmar Ábrego García detained after reporting to US immigration agentsThe justice department is alleging in a new court filing that three Smartmatic executives who were indicted last year on bribery and money-laundering charges transferred money from a 2018 voting machine contract with Los Angeles county into slush funds that were originally set up to pay bribes to election officials in Venezuela and the Philippines between 2012 and 2016 to obtain and retain lucrative election contracts.Prosecutors say one of the executives transferred an undisclosed amount from the $282m LA county contract into the slush funds in 2019 but did not say if anyone actually received bribes from the county’s money at that point. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Kilmar Ábrego García detained after reporting to US immigration agents

Maryland man, back in US after being wrongly deported to El Salvador, is threatened with deportation to UgandaKilmar Ábrego García – who has been thrust into the middle of an acrimonious deportation saga by the second Trump administration – has been detained after reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in Baltimore on Monday.“The only reason he was taken into detention was to punish him,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney representing Ábrego, told a crowd of supporters outside a Baltimore Ice field office on Monday. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Federal judge orders closure of Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration jail

Judge’s order finds jail, which has attracted waves of criticism, was causing severe harm to Florida EvergladesA federal judge in Miami late on Thursday ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail within 60 days, and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down.The shock ruling by district court judge Kathleen Williams builds on a temporary restraining order she issued two weeks ago halting further construction work at the remote tented camp, which has attracted waves of criticism for harsh conditions, abuse of detainees and denial of due process as they await deportation. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Judge to weigh detainees' legal rights at 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Florida Everglades

A federal judge is considering whether detainees have been denied their legal rights at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades

Events

3 w. ago Father of New Zealand woman held in US by Ice along with six

Rod Price recounts ‘frantic’ call he received from Sarah Shaw after her detention at US border while returning from CanadaThe father of a New Zealand woman who has been held in a US immigration detention centre for three weeks with her six-year-old son is hopeful the pair will be released by the end of the week.US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained Sarah Shaw and her youngest son after they attempted to re-enter the US from Canada on 24 July. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago New Zealand woman who ‘thought she was being kidnapped’ detained by ICE at US

Woman and her minor son remain in custody in ‘horrible and isolated conditions’, friend says

Events

3 w. ago Democrats say Trump is illegally blocking them from visiting Ice detention: ‘The goal is to bully us’

Confrontations are playing out nationwide as lawmakers conduct checks of facilities where thousands are being heldThe Arizona representative Yassamin Ansari toured a detention facility in May where immigrants rounded up as part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportation were being housed. She described what she saw inside as “sickening” and “worse than prison” – immigrant detainees were held in overcrowded, moldy cells and many reported that they did not have reliable access to food, water or medical care.Two months later, Ansari returned to the remote desert complex to conduct another congressional oversight visit. This time, she was denied entry. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Judge orders ICE to improve conditions after NYC immigration detainees complain of mistreatment

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately improve conditions at a New York City immigration holding facility

Events

3 w. ago ‘Petri dish for disease’: attorney raises alarm of possible Covid outbreak at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A respiratory disease is running rampant through Florida immigration jail, according to attorney of a detained personAn outbreak of a respiratory disease, possibly Covid-19, is running rampant through the remote Florida immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, according to the attorney of an infected detainee removed from the camp last week.Eric Lee said he was told by his client Luis Manuel Rivas Velasquez that conditions at the facility had deteriorated significantly since Thursday as more migrants held there by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency experienced symptoms. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Trump Burger owner in Texas faces deportation after Ice arrest

Roland Beainy from Lebanon, who opened chain of restaurants in support of president, says charges ‘not true’ The owner of a Donald Trump-themed hamburger restaurant chain in Texas is facing deportation after immigration authorities under the command of the president detained him.Roland Mehrez Beainy, 28, entered the US as “a non-immigrant visitor” from Lebanon in 2019 and was supposed to have left the country by 12 February 2024, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) spokesperson told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Florida updated agreement on handling detainees at 'Alligator Alcatraz,' but a month after it opened

Florida's corrections agency and ICE updated an agreement on handling federal immigration detainees, but they did it more than a month after ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ opened

Politics

4 w. ago US judge orders halt to construction at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention center

Temporary halt for facility in Florida Everglades comes as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental lawsA federal judge on Thursday ordered a temporary halt to construction of an immigration detention center – built in the middle of the Florida Everglades and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” – as attorneys argue whether it violates environmental laws.The facility can continue to operate and hold detainees for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), but workers will be barred from adding any new filling, paving or infrastructure for the next 14 days. US district judge Kathleen Williams issued the ruling during a hearing and said she will issue a written order later Thursday. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago First people to be returned to France under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal

People detained after arriving in small boat expected to be returned within three weeks, says Home OfficePeople who arrived in the UK on a small boat have been detained under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal for the first time and are expected to be returned to France within three weeks, the Home Office has said.Detentions began on Wednesday lunchtime, with those identified in the Channel boat being held in immigration removal centres pending their removal. Continue reading...

Economics