Florida plans to open second immigration facility dubbed ‘Deportation Depot' at a vacant prison
'We are calling this the Deportation Depot,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday.
DeSantis announced that more than 1,300 detainees will be held inside the facility at Baker Correctional Institution, a temporarily closed state prison about 45 miles west of Jacksonville near Osceola National Forest.
'The reason of this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage and then return illegal aliens to their home country. That is the name of the game,' DeSantis said, adding the detention center 'will be operational soon.'
'It's not going to take forever but we are also not rushing to do it right this day,' the governor said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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an hour ago
- Yahoo
U-turn as Trump administration agrees to keep Washington police chief in place
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The police department had already eased some restrictions on co-operating with federal officials facilitating Mr Trump's mass deportation campaign but reaffirmed that it would follow the district's sanctuary city laws. In a letter sent on Friday night to DC citizens, Ms Bowser wrote: 'It has been an unsettling and unprecedented week in our city. Over the course of a week, the surge in federal law enforcement across DC has created waves of anxiety.' She added that 'our limited self-government has never faced the type of test we are facing right now', but added that if Washingtonians stick together, 'we will show the entire nation what it looks like to fight for American democracy – even when we don't have full access to it'. The legal battle was the latest evidence of the escalating tensions in a mostly Democratic city that now has its police department largely under the control of the Republican president's administration. 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A lawyer for the Trump administration, Yaakov Roth, said the move to sideline Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith came after an immigration order that still held back some aid to federal authorities. He argued that the president has broad authority to determine what kind of help police in Washington must provide. The police takeover is the latest move by Trump to test the limits of his legal authorities to carry out his agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to bolster his tough-on-crime message and his plans to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally. It also marks one of the most sweeping assertions of federal authority over a local government in modern times. While Washington has grappled with spikes in violence and visible homelessness, the city's homicide rate ranks below those of several other major US cities, and the capital is not in the throes of the public safety collapse the Trump administration has portrayed. The president has more power over the nation's capital than other cities, but DC has elected its own mayor and city council since the Home Rule Act was signed in 1973. Mr Trump is the first president to exert control over the city's police force since it was passed. The law limits that control to 30 days without congressional approval, though Mr Trump has suggested he would seek to extend it. Ms Bondi's Thursday night directive to place the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Terry Cole, in charge of the police department came after Ms Smith had told officers to share information with immigration agencies regarding people not in custody, such as someone involved in a traffic stop. 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CNN
an hour ago
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Judge denies Trump administration request to end a policy protecting immigrant children in custody
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ron DeSantis Slams 'Suspiciously-Timed' Congressional Stock Trades, 'Windfall Profits:' Says Nancy Pelosi Outperforms The Best Hedge Funds
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