Raceland man accused of attempted murder of kids after setting ‘intentional fire'
The Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshals Office reported that at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, 32-year-old Demarcus Sylvester allegedly set fire to the side door of a home in the 200 block of Williams Street.
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According to deputies, inside the home were a 15-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy.
The children were able to escape unharmed and the fire reportedly caused minimal damage.
Sylvester was arrested and booked into the Lafourche Parish Correctional Complex on two counts of attempted second degree murder and a count of aggravated arson.
Deputies said the investigation remains ongoing.
Anyone with information on the incident can call the arson hotline at 1-844-954-1221.Stephen Miller on report of Musk drug use: We're worried about drugs crossing the border
Raceland man accused of attempted murder of kids after setting 'intentional fire'
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Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Contractors building Alligator Alcatraz have donated money to Florida GOP, DeSantis
Among at least 10 state contractors involved in the creation of Alligator Alcatraz, the facility in the middle of the Everglades the state has built for immigrant detainees, three have given money to Gov. Ron DeSantis or the Republican Party of Florida for statewide campaigns. One contractor stands out: CDR Maguire and its affiliated company, CDR Health. The companies and their married chief executives, Carlos Duart and Tina Vidal-Duart, have given a total of $1.9 million to the two state political action committees supporting DeSantis' bids for governor and to the Republican Party of Florida, according to Florida campaign finance records. Duart and Vidal-Duart are close allies of DeSantis and have come up repeatedly in recent reporting by the Herald/Times. Duart, a DeSantis-appointed FIU trustee, was mentioned in an article relating to the Governor's Inn, an exclusive hotel developed by a different donor that is closed to the public. Reporters saw him going in and out of the Inn on May 6 before driving off in his black Ferrari 812 Superfast — worth up to $400,000 new. Vidal-Duart serves on the board of the embattled Hope Florida Foundation charity that is spearheaded by state First Lady Casey DeSantis and that is central to a criminal investigation by the State Attorney's Office in Leon County over a $10 million transfer that came from a Medicaid settlement last year. CDR Maguire is a national emergency-management company based in Miami. It has seven affiliated companies, according to its website, that span from health care to financial services to bridge construction, all of which could be useful in developing temporary shelters such as the migrant detention center being built in the Everglades. CDR Health is among them. According to the company's website, employees at CDR Health's Miami office have treated more than 140,000 refugees, including Cuban and Haitian asylum applicants. Neither Duart nor Vidal-Duart returned a call from the Herald/Times on Wednesday. Two sources familiar with the construction of the Everglades site confirmed to the Herald/Times that the companies are working on site preparation and engineering, as well as staffing a medical facility. The detention camp is intended to house up to 3,000 immigrants before they are deported. It opened on Tuesday with a red-carpet-like rollout for political celebrities including President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DeSantis. Friendly press were given tours. It was set to accept its first detainees Wednesday night, state Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a post on X. The other state contractors include Deployed Resources LLC, the port-a-potty company Doodie Calls, GardaWorld, Garner Environmental Services, Gothams LLC, Granny's Alliance, Longview International Technological Solutions and SLS-WSP JV. GardaWorld Cash, one of several companies affiliated with GardaWorld – one of the world's largest security services companies, according to its website — gave $5,000 to DeSantis' Empower Parents political action committee in 2018. The political organization, which went by Friends of Ron DeSantis at the time, was created to support DeSantis' first bid for governor. GardaWorld will provide correctional staffing to the site, according to the two sources familiar with the plans. GardaWorld has also been eyed for Florida's immigration agenda before – they were one of the vendors picked by the state to fly migrants out of Florida. A representative from GardaWorld did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. Gothams LLC is a 'disaster logistics response' company, according to its website. Founder Matt Michelsen gave $25,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2021 and $25,000 to DeSantis' Empower Parents political action committee in 2022. Gothams will provide technology services, according to the sources. A representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. Gothams, which is based in Texas, has made millions constructing a holding facility in the Lone Star state, according to the nonprofit news organization Texas Observer. Billions awarded before While CDR Maguire's owners are the biggest donors to DeSantis and the state Republican party, their two companies haven't received the most money in state contracts compared to one of the other Alligator Alcatraz vendors. That prize goes to Texas-based Garner Environmental Services. The DeSantis administration is being sued by environmental groups given the remote construction site is in the ecologically unique Everglades. Garner has been awarded up to $1.6 billion for past state work, according to the Florida contracting system. Garner has worked with Florida for hurricane preparation and recovery. The firm will help build the detention center and assist with ongoing maintenance, according to the sources. A representative from the company could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening. CDR Maguire and CDR Health have been awarded up to a $1 billion combined for past state contracting work. Gothams LLC has been awarded up to $310.5 million. GardaWorld has been awarded up to nearly $8 million. All the other state contractors confirmed by the Herald/Times have also received past contracting work, according to the state's contracting website: ▪ SLS-WSP JV: awarded up to $279 million ▪ Longview International Technology Solutions (LTS): awarded up to $221 million ▪ Doodie Calls: awarded up to $207.8 million ▪ Deployed Resources LLC: awarded up to $65.7 million ▪ Granny's Alliance: awarded up to $56 million Representatives from the companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. SLS-WSP, like Garner, is helping build out the detention facility. LTS, like CDR Maguire, is involved in site preparation and engineering. Doodie Calls, aptly named, will provide facility sanitation. Granny's Alliance will feed detained migrants. Deployed Resources will provide janitorial services, according to the sources. Deployed Resources also has a $3.8 billion dollar contract with the federal government to operate a migrant detention camp in Texas, according to the Texas Tribune, and has focused on tent complexes. Miami Herald staff writers Siena Duncan and Churchill Ndonwie contributed to this story.


The Hill
2 days ago
- The Hill
Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' will make the immigration court mess even worse
Recently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Sayed Naser, an Afghan man who had spent years translating for the U.S. military, as he left an immigration court hearing in San Diego. Naser had done everything we ask of those seeking safe harbor in the U.S. When Taliban fighters killed his brother and abducted his father from a family wedding for working with the U.S., Naser and his family fled to Brazil, then made the long and dangerous trek here on foot. In 2024, he made an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection as he entered the country. There, government officials paroled Naser into the U.S., where he applied for asylum and a Special Immigrant Visa created for foreign nationals who work with the U.S. in a war zone. On June 11, 2025, Naser went to his first hearing before an immigration judge, as was required for his asylum application. When he arrived, however, a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security claimed that his case had been 'improvidently issued.' Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waiting outside the courtroom handcuffed him. He is now in immigration detention, and his wife and children are in hiding. Although shocking, Naser's case is sadly no longer unusual. Since May, as part of their effort to meet a 3,000 person per day quota, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the country have been arresting hundreds of people as they leave their immigration hearings. Arresting people in and around courthouses used to be largely off limits — and for good reason. Such practices mean that immigrants face an impossible choice: go to court to follow the law and apply for immigration or asylum status legally — and face possible arrest there and then, or fail to appear, give up your legal claims to asylum or a green card, and have the judge order deportation in your absence. There is another, much less visible way that immigrants' access to the courts is now in peril as well. If Trump's budget reconciliation bill passes as written, immigrants and asylum seekers like Naser will face exorbitant fees that will prevent almost everyone from having their day in court. Under the bill, people paroled into the United States would have to pay a $1,000 fee upon entering plus a $550 work authorization fee. To renew or extend parole — which people would have to do at least every six months — there would be an additional $550 fee. Then, to apply for asylum, there would be another $1,000 fee. And if an applicant needed more time to find a lawyer or to collect documents, the court would charge another $100 for each continuance the person requested in court. Similar fees would apply for people applying for other kinds of status, including for youth traveling alone and for people fleeing countries decimated by war or natural disasters. Naser — who walked to the U.S. on foot from Brazil — almost certainly does not have thousands of dollars to apply for asylum. Neither most other immigrants and asylum seekers. These fees would effectively deny access to the courts for all but the very wealthy. Arresting people as they try to do the right thing by going through our legal system — and charging them such high fees that no one can afford to go to court — undermines the rule of law that is the bedrock of our country. Due process, which is enshrined in the Fifth and 14th amendments to the Constitution, requires that the government prove its case in court and give individuals the right to be heard before it can deprive them of life, liberty or property. Due process protects not only the rights of immigrants (or citizens mistaken as immigrants) from unfair deportation, but it also requires the government to prove its case against someone before imprisoning them, to go to court before taking someone's property or benefits, and to hold a hearing before removing a person's child. Courts play an essential role in our society. Their purpose is to ensure that everyone is treated fairly under the law and insist that the government follows fair procedures. They place a critical check on abuses of power by the executive and legislative branches. When due process breaks down and people can no longer access immigration courts — whether for fear of what will happen when they appear or simply because the price tag to access justice is too high — that will further stoke fear in immigrant communities and dissuade people from asserting their rights in court. But it should also strike fear in all of us because when access to justice is threatened for some, it is a threat to our entire system of justice, which is a grave threat to us all. Lauren Jones is the Legal and Policy Director at the National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham Law School


USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Daily Briefing: Health care cuts for Americans
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