Latest news with #MiamiDadeCounty
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Judge considers whether 'Alligator Alcatraz' challenge was filed in wrong venue
A legal challenge to a hastily-built immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades was filed in the wrong venue, government attorneys argued Wednesday in the first of two hearings over the legality of Alligator Alcatraz in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida's southern district is the wrong venue for the federal lawsuit by environmental groups since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state's middle district, according to government arguments. Any decision by US District Judge Kathleen Williams in Miami about whether to move the case could also influence a separate lawsuit brought by civil rights advocates who say that detainees at Alligator Alcatraz have been denied access to attorneys and immigration courts. The federal and state government defendants in the civil rights case also argue that the lawsuit was filed in the wrong venue. At the request of a judge, the civil rights groups on Tuesday filed a revised class-action complaint arguing that the detainees' constitutional rights were being violated. Environmental groups filed their lawsuit against federal and state officials in Florida's southern district last month asking for the project being built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades to be halted because the process didn't follow state and federal environmental laws. Besides Wednesday's hearing over venue, a second hearing has been scheduled for next week on the environmental groups' request for temporary injunction. The first of hundreds of detainees arrived a few days after the lawsuit was filed, and the facility has the capacity to hold 3,000 people. The detention center was opened by Florida officials, but critics said it's unclear whether federal immigration officials or state officials are calling the shots. Deportation flights from Alligator Alcatraz started last week. Williams on Monday ordered that any agreements be produced in court between the US Department of Homeland Security and the Florida Department of Emergency Management, a move that could shed some light on the relationship between federal and state agencies in running the facility. Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane as well as a threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Bloomberg
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Miami Mayor Election Date Still in Flux as City Appeals Ruling
The date for the vote to elect the next mayor of Miami is becoming a contentious dispute between the city commission, aspiring candidates and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Originally planned for November, the city commission delayed it by a year in a meeting held last month. On Monday, after a Miami-Dade County court ruled that the move was unconstitutional, the city filed a swift appeal.
Washington Post
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Environmentalists' lawsuit to halt 'Alligator Alcatraz' filed in wrong court, Florida official says
Florida's top emergency official asked a federal judge on Monday to resist a request by environmentalists to halt an immigration detention center known as 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the middle of the Florida Everglades because their lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida's southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state's middle district. Decisions about the facility also were made in Tallahassee and Washington, Kevin Guthrie, executive director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a court filing.
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
The virtually abandoned Florida airport being turned into 'Alligator Alcatraz'
A convoy of trucks carrying tents, construction materials and portable toilets flows into a virtually abandoned airport in Florida's picturesque Everglades, a UNESCO World Heritage they're not helping build the region's next big tourist attraction. Instead they're laying the foundations for a new migrant detention facility, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz".The facility, in the middle of a Miami swamp, was proposed by state lawmakers to support US President Donald Trump's deportation agenda."You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons," explains the state's attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, in a video set to rock music and posted on social new detention centre is being built on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, about 43 miles (70km) from central Miami, in the middle of the Everglades, an ecologically important subtropical airfield where the detention centre will be based is mainly a pilot training runway surrounded by vast the stifling summer heat rife with mosquitoes, we managed to advance only a few metres into the compound when, as expected, a guard in a lorry blocked our hear sounds coming from a small canal next to the compound. We wonder whether it's fish, snakes, or the hundreds of alligators that roam the wetland. Florida answers Trump's call Although the airstrip belongs to Miami-Dade County, the decision to turn it into a detention centre was made following a 2023 executive order by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, invoking emergency powers to stem the flow of undocumented new centre, which according to authorities will have the capacity to accommodate around 1,000 detainees and will begin operations in July or August, is quickly becoming a controversial symbol of the Trump administration's immigration Trump orders immigration authorities to carry out "the single largest mass deportation programme in history", human rights organisations say detention centres are becoming to data obtained by CBS News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a record 59,000 detainees nationwide, 140% above its capacity. Environmental and human rights concerns Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Native American community, lives near the site and recently took part in a protest against the suspects that rather than being a temporary site as authorities have stated, it will operate for months or even years."I have serious concerns about the environmental damage," Ms Osceola tells us while we were talking next to a canal where an alligator was is also concerned about the living conditions that detainees may face in the new concerns are echoed by environmental organisations, such as Friends of the Everglades, and by human rights organisations in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida told the BBC the proposed facility "is not just cruel and absurd. It underscores how our immigration system is increasingly being used to punish people rather than process them."Even ICE detention centres in populated areas, the ACLU said, "have well-documented histories of medical neglect, denial of legal access, and systemic mistreatment".BBC Mundo contacted the Florida attorney general's office, but did not receive a the social media video, Uthmeier says the project is an "efficient" and "low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility".With the "Alligator Alcatraz", he says, there will be "nowhere to go, nowhere to hide". Facility is 'cost-effective', secretary says Expanding, adapting, or building new detention centres has been one of the Trump administration's main challenges in accelerating Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement sent to the BBC that Florida will receive federal funds to establish the new detention centre."We are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," she added."We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."Noem says that the facility will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which is responsible for disaster co-ordination. Daniella Levine Cava, the Democratic mayor of Miami-Dade County, which owns the airstrip land, says that she has requested information from state mayor "clearly laid out several concerns" regarding the proposed use of the airport, namely around funding and environmental impacts, her office said in a statement to the immigration raids have increased in cities like Los Angeles, the operations to detain migrants seem to be so far less widespread in Miami Dade County and South undocumented Latinos prefer to stay at home because they are afraid of being arrested and sent to detention centres, according to testimonies gathered by BBC Mundo.
CBS News
15-06-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Southwest Miami-Dade brush fire disrupts travelers as flames, smoke force major road closures
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and the Florida Forest Service are still trying to put out a wildfire that sparked up over the weekend in southwestern Miami-Dade County. The fire shut down Southwest 8th Street since Saturday afternoon and has since reopened. Meanwhile, Krome Avenue from US-27 to Tamiami Trail is still closed. Road closures are impacting people's weekend plans Mary said she had an appointment at 8 a.m. to visit her relative at the Everglades Reentry Center Prison. But cones and the Florida Highway Patrol had closed off her only way to get there on Southwest 8th Street. "Ain't telling me nothing, but I knew I can't go through that scene," she said. CBS News Miami told her why: It's a forest fire that has been burning since Saturday night. It had burned through 450 acres as of Sunday afternoon. Smoke was visible in the morning as MDFR kept putting out hot spots from the air. Mary said she had to schedule her visit at the prison a week in advance, and now she said she likely will have to reschedule. "We left home really early — six o'clock this morning," Mary said. "We get down here and we get in a line." Southwest 8th Street opened around 10 a.m. That was good news for airboat tours since that's the only way to get to them. One owner told CBS News Miami that if the road was closed any longer, it would have caused problems for those with rides scheduled. FHP only allowed people through if they lived nearby or were working in the area. James Millings had planned to take his family visiting from Georgia on a fishing trip in the Florida Everglades. But his only way in was closed off. "Too bad," Millings said. "I was hoping to take back a whole cooler full of fish." Millings had to settle for fishing at a creek next to the blockade until the road opened. He stayed optimistic while waiting. "At least the smoke isn't coming this way because my wife has asthma," Millings said. Southwest 8th Street is open again, but fire rescue personnel are still urging people with respiratory problems to stay away. The fire happened near the Krome Detention Center for immigration and customs enforcement detainees. The agency said the fire didn't cause any evacuations.
