DeSantis announces plans for second immigration detention facility in north Florida
DeSantis announced Thursday that the new facility is to be housed at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles (69 kilometers) west of Jacksonville. It is expected to hold 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said.
After opening the Everglades facility last month, DeSantis justified opening the second detention center, dubbed 'Deportation Depot' by the state, by saying President Donald Trump's administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants.
'There is a demand for this,' DeSantis said. 'I'm confident it will be filled.'
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Democrats release proposed new California congressional map
Democrats on Friday released a proposed new California congressional map as they aim to counter Republican-led redistricting efforts in Texas. The proposal was submitted to the state legislature on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and comes as the latest development in an intensifying redistricting fight. 'Earlier today, the DCCC submitted a proposed congressional map to the legislative public portal with collaborative input from stakeholders and legislators. We anticipate this proposal will have widespread support both among California office holders and various stakeholders across the state,' executive director Julie Merz said in a release. 'We will not stand by as Republicans attempt to rig the election in their favor and choose their voters.' California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is vying to hold a special election this fall on a ballot measure that would suspend the state's independent redistricting commission until the end of the decade in an effort to keep up with Republican gerrymandering. Newsom has stressed that bypassing the commission, which Californians approved back in 2008 and 2010, would be temporary, and that redrawing the lines would only be triggered by redistricting in red states. Democrats in the California legislature are expected to move the measure forward when they reconvene next week, teeing up a November special election. The proposed maps are expected to effectively neutralize the would-be gains in Texas, where a plan backed by President Trump could net five GOP House seats, by creating five blue districts in California. The Republican incumbents effected by the new map are Reps. Kevin Kiley (R), Doug LaMalfa (R), Darrell Issa (R), Ken Calvert (R) and David Valadao (R). 'They do five seats, we do five seats,' Newsom has said. Democrats in the Texas state legislature fled earlier this month in a desperate bid to stall the GOP plan from moving forward, but they've signaled they could return if, among other conditions, California introduced its maps to counter the Lone Star State. 'I love my current congressional district, but I understand the stakes. Democracy is on the line,' Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said on X as news of the map broke. 'When this new map is approved by voters, I look forward to running in the new 42nd district, made up of my hometown of Long Beach, coastal OC, Costa Mesa & South Santa Ana. Let's go!' The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) backed the maps, calling California's plan a 'measured response' to counteract Trump's 'blatant power grab in Texas. The Republicans' congressional campaign arm blasted the redistricting moves on Friday, arguing Newsom 'is shredding California's Constitution and disenfranchising voters to prop up his Presidential ambitions.'
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Trump administration partially retreats from a takeover of Washington's police. Here's what to know.
Federal troops are patrolling the National Mall and neighborhoods across Washington while President Donald Trump's administration exerts extraordinary power over law enforcement in the nation's capital. But the administration backed down from an attempt to take over the city's police department by installing its own emergency police commissioner after a federal judge indicated she would rule against it. The partial retreat interrupted one aspect of the most sweeping uses of federal authority over a local government in modern times. How it will play out and whether the federal government will use this experience as a potential blueprint for dealing with other cities remains up in the air. Here's what to know about the situation and what might come next: The Republican president this week announced he's taking control over Washington's police department and activating National Guard troops to reduce crime, an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. But District of Columbia officials say the action isn't needed, pointing out that violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down significantly again this year. D.C.'s status as a congressionally established federal district gives Trump a window to assert more control over the district than other cities. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't offer much resistance at first, allowing city workers to clear homeless encampments and work closely with federal immigration agents. But on Friday, the heavily Democratic district asked for an emergency court order blocking Trump officials from putting a federal official in charge of D.C. police. The Trump administration on Friday agreed to leave the Washington, D.C., police chief in control of the department. That came one day after Attorney General Pam Bondi said the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration would take over the police chief's duties, including authority over orders issued to officers. The two sides sparred in court for hours before U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes after the city sued to stop the order. The judge indicated the law likely doesn't grant the Trump administration power to fully take over city police, but it probably does give the president more power than the city might like. She pushed the two sides to compromise, promising to issue a court order temporarily blocking the administration from naming a new chief if they couldn't agree. But while Attorney General Pam Bondi agreed to leave the police chief in charge, she directed the District's police to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement regardless of any city law. The showdown in Washington is the latest attempt by Trump to test the boundaries of his legal authority to carry out his tough-on-crime agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally. About 800 National Guard troops are being activated, with Humvees parked along the Washington Monument and near Union Station. Troops have been spotted standing outside baseball's Nationals Park and neighborhood restaurants. The White House says guard members aren't making arrests but are protecting law enforcement officers who are making arrests and helping deter violent crime. Trump says one of the objectives will be moving homeless people far from the city. Trump has the authority to do this for 30 days and says he might look into extending it. But that would require congressional approval. Whether Republicans in Congress would go along with that is unclear. Some D.C. residents have protested against the increased police presence. For some, the action echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint predominantly Black cities with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify police action. Washington is very different from any other American city, and the rules that govern it give the federal government much more control than it would have anywhere else. Whether Trump is using this as a blueprint for how to approach cities — largely Democratic cities — that he wants to exert more control over remains to be seen.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Leaked California redistricting maps show where Democrats would draw new lines
SACRAMENTO — California Democrats would appear to have a shot at flipping several congressional seats next year under a leaked draft map KCRA published Friday. The maps appear to make significant changes to many districts currently held by Republicans. Districts represented by Reps. Doug LaMalfa, R-Chico, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, change dramatically, making them possible Democratic pickups. Swing districts held by Reps. Adam Gray, D-Turlock; Josh Harder, D-Stockton; and George Whitesides, D-Santa Clarita, appear to become easier to hold for Democrats. The maps appear to also pack more Democrats into the districts of Rep. David Valadao, R-Bakersfield — already a difficult seat for Republicans to hold — and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-San Diego, making it a possible Democratic target. The maps were still being debated on Friday, KCRA reported. Nick Miller, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, said he had not seen KCRA's maps when asked to confirm their authenticity. Democrats intend to imperil at least five Republican incumbents, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have said. The maps represent the centerpiece of Newsom's plan to counter efforts in Texas and other Republican-dominated states to redraw their congressional districts to further favor the GOP. In Texas and most other states, congressional maps are drawn by state lawmakers and can be manipulated by whichever party is in power. But in California, maps are drawn by an independent redistricting commission that includes equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. The proposed ballot measure would replace the commission's maps with the new ones released by the Legislature. They would be in effect for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. After that, the independent commission would draw new maps based on the 2030 census. That argument has not assuaged opponents, particularly in the Republican Party. 'No matter how you slice it, he is undermining the will of the voters,' Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, told the Chronicle ahead of the maps' release. He said he thinks the independent commission has drawn fair maps and that he worries new maps drawn to benefit Democrats will diminish the voting power of people in rural parts of the state. Gallagher said he supports an effort by Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, who previously served in the state Assembly, to bar all states from engaging in mid-decade redistricting. That could halt efforts in California as well as in Texas, though Gallagher stopped short of criticizing Texas Republicans for their redistricting push, saying that was not his role. LaMalfa said he opposes Kiley's bill because he doesn't think the federal government should trample on states' rights to run their own elections. But he also opposes efforts in both California and Texas to redistrict mid-decade. 'Two wrongs don't make a right,' LaMalfa said in response to Newsom's argument that Texas' redistricting forced his hand. Under the draft map, LaMalfa's district seems to change dramatically, shedding ruby-red northern counties like Modoc, Siskiyou and Shasta. Instead, it gains somewhat less-red Plumas County, but it will also extend south and west to include parts of much bluer Mendocino, Lake, and Sonoma counties along the Highway 101 corridor — including, apparently, much of the North Bay city of Santa Rosa. Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for the campaign opposing Newsom's ballot measure, said it was inappropriate for state lawmakers, some of whom are actively running for Congress, to draw new maps. 'These maps were drawn by politicians and party insiders behind closed doors with no transparency and no input from the public,' she wrote in a statement. 'Californians deserve district lines that are drawn in the open, by our citizens' independent commission.' 'Californians oppose Newsom's stunt because they won't let a self-serving politician rig the system to further his career,' he wrote in a statement. 'The NRCC is prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks.
