Deportation flights from Florida's ‘Alligator Alcatraz' detention center have begun, DeSantis says
OCHOPEE, Fla. — Deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as ' Alligator Alcatraz ″ began in the past few days, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
The flights operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention centre to other countries, said DeSantis, who expects that number to increase soon.
'I think you're going to see the numbers go up dramatically,' DeSantis said during a news conference near the South Florida detention centre.
Officials said that two or three flights have departed from the site so far, but they didn't say where those flights headed.
Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane. DeSantis and other Republican officials have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
Building the facility in the Everglades and naming it after a notorious federal prison were meant as deterrents, DeSantis and other officials have said.
The White House has delighted in the area's remoteness — about 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of Miami — and the fact that it is teeming with pythons and alligators. It hopes to convey a message to detainees and the rest of the world that repercussions will be severe if the immigration laws of the United States are not followed.
The centre was built in eight days over 10 square miles (26 square kilometres) of the Everglades. It features more than 200 security cameras, more than five miles (eight kilometres) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.
It currently holds about 2,000 people, with the potential to double the capacity, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Friday.
The Associated Press
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Sudanese Canadians say barriers to filing federal paperwork are harming efforts to get loved ones safe refuge
Some Sudanese Canadians are calling out Ottawa for rejecting their applications to privately sponsor loved ones fleeing conflict without making it clear what's missing in their paperwork or how they can fix any errors. Samah Mahmoud is a London, Ont., immigration consultant whose own application for her sister was rejected. Mahmoud said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has told over 50 sponsors across the country that their submissions won't be processed because they're incomplete and resubmitting missing documents isn't allowed. "I applied for some of my clients who have also received the similar rejection of incomplete and we have checked these applications; there's nothing incomplete as per the guidelines posted on the website. They just sent this general message to everyone without specifying what was missing so people can know why they were rejected. And I cannot reply to the email or do anything about it. CBC News has seen the email that IRCC sent Mahmoud and other applicants. Tens of thousands of people have already died in Sudan since the civil war started in April 2023. Over 12 million people have been displaced and half the population is in acute hunger, according to the United Nations, which calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Earlier this year, Canada announced it will accept 160 new applications to resettle approximately 350 Sudanese refugees privately sponsored by either groups of five or community sponsors. WATCH | Why a Canadian program for refugees from Sudan is under criticism: In February, it reopened a family-based pathway it first launched in 2024 and Ottawa committed to resettling 4,700 refugees by the end of 2026. Of that total, 4,000 refugees would receive government assistance and 700 would arrive through private sponsorship. 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IRCC said the Sudanese private sponsorship program has reached capacity and the ministry is reviewing applications, but no decisions have yet been rendered. The ministry's program guide mentions applicants will not be contacted for missing documents or information, and a decision will be made based on the evidence submitted and on a case-by-case basis. Asked if procedural fairness applies to this program as mentioned on its website, Sabater said that in cases of incomplete applications, a letter will be sent to the applicants directing them to access the PR [Permanent Residence) Portal for details on which parts of their application were incomplete. Enlarge image (new window) Sudanese refugees displaced by the conflict in Sudan gather to receive food staples from aid agencies at the Metche Camp in eastern Chad on March 5, 2024. 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Their parents had died in the Sudan conflict. Nour believes IRCC isn't acting with urgency and the delays are costing lives. I just feel the level of compassion or empathy is not there, and it's disheartening. It's a complete disregard to the lives of our loved ones, said Nour. It's almost like we have to pick and choose who we want to throw a lifeline to and save. Basically, this leaves us nowhere to help bring them here. Many in the Sudanese diaspora face financial constraints, trying to sustain their lives here and pay for displaced loved ones, putting money away for almost two years so it can be used to support family members when they arrive in Canada. They believe the goalposts are constantly shifting and question why that's the case for the private sponsorship program. They're [Ottawa] not doing this for free; we paid money for these applications and we're taking care of our families. The government is not going to do anything for them, said Mahmoud. We just want the government to deliver what was promised. Isha Bhargava (new window) · CBC News · Reporter Isha Bhargava is a multiplatform reporter for CBC News and has worked for its Ontario newsrooms in Toronto and London. She loves telling current affairs and human interest stories. You can reach her at
CBC
11 minutes ago
- CBC
Thailand, Cambodia agree to ceasefire after 5 days of battle
The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand agreed to a ceasefire on Monday effective at midnight, in a bid to bring an end to their deadliest conflict in more than a decade after five days of fierce fighting. Amid an international effort to quell the conflict, the Thai and Cambodian leaders held talks in Malaysia hosted by its Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, where both sides agreed to halt hostilities and resume direct communications. Anwar said when opening a news conference alongside the Thai and Cambodian leaders that there would be "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire with effect from midnight tonight. This is final." The Southeast Asian neighbours accuse each other of starting the fighting last week, before escalating it with heavy artillery bombardment and Thai airstrikes along their 817-kilometre land border. Anwar had proposed ceasefire talks soon after a long-running border dispute erupted into conflict on Thursday, and China and the United States also offered to assist in negotiations. WATCH | Why the border dispute appeared to be escalating in the last week: A century-old border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia has boiled over after Thai and Cambodian forces fired on each other in a deadly exchange. Andrew Chang explains what spurred this recent violence and why neither side appears eager to back down. U.S. President Donald Trump called both leaders on the weekend urging them to settle their differences, warning he would not conclude trade deals with them unless they ended the fighting. The tension between Thailand and Cambodia has intensified since the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a brief skirmish late in May. Both sides reinforced border troops amid a full-blown diplomatic crisis that brought Thailand's fragile coalition government to the brink of collapse. "Today we have a very good meeting and very good results ... that hope to stop immediately the fighting that has caused many lives lost, injuries and also caused displacement of people," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said, expressing appreciation to Trump and to China for its efforts in participating in the process. "We hope that the solutions that Prime Minister Anwar just announced will set a condition for moving forward for our bilateral discussion to return to normalcy of the relationship, and as a foundation for future de-escalation of forces." Acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who had earlier expressed doubts about Cambodia's sincerity ahead of the negotiations in Malaysia, said Thailand had agreed to a ceasefire that would "be carried out successfully in good faith by both sides."
an hour ago
What the U.S. dairy industry really wants from Canada
U.S. dairy producers insist they're not looking for Canada to dismantle its supply management system, but they do want Canada to follow the letter and spirit of the existing deal that governs the dairy trade between the two countries. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted Canada as unfair and ripping us off with massive dairy tariffs, in a way that isn't fully accurate. However, senior figures in the U.S. dairy industry are concerned there's also some misrepresentation happening north of the border, creating a false perception of what U.S. producers are actually seeking in terms of access to the Canadian market. Shawna Morris, executive vice-president for trade policy and global affairs with the National Milk Producers Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, says it's not true that her industry wants Canada to abandon its system for protecting the dairy sector. We've never been out to eliminate Canada's supply management, said Morris in an interview from her office in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington. It's much easier to create a boogeyman and fear-mongering around that being the goal of the Americans, but that's certainly not what our industry has advocated. Enlarge image (new window) Donald Trump dances as he departs a September 2024 campaign event at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, Wis. The top dairy-producing state in the U.S. has also been a key swing state in recent presidential elections, decided by less than one percentage point in each election since 2016. Photo: Associated Press / Alex Brandon Becky Rasdall Vargas, senior vice-president of trade and workforce policy at the International Dairy Foods Association lobby group, says she recognizes the Trump administration has been fairly abrasive in its tone toward Canada. But at the same time, I think we feel pretty ignored by Canada in terms of our legitimate trade concerns. Two main trade irritants According to Morris and Rasdall Vargas, the U.S. industry has two main irritants with Canada: how the Canadian government allocates the existing quotas for tariff-free imports of dairy products, and how Canadian milk producers dump cheap milk protein into the international market. The import quotas negotiated under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA, which Americans call USMCA) are designed to give U.S. producers tariff-free access worth roughly 3.5 per cent of Canada's domestic demand for dairy products. Three per cent is pretty limited, said Morris. It's certainly not a situation where our industry is gonna come in and take over the Canadian dairy market. How much U.S. milk comes into Canada? See interactive chart here (new window) CUSMA sets import quotas for 14 categories of dairy products. That allows an annual volume of each category (new window) to enter Canada tariff-free, and any imports exceeding the quota would get hit with sky-high tariffs of 200 per cent or more. Canada's rationale for this is ensuring the domestic dairy industry thrives by effectively capping how much the U.S. can export each year, preventing cheaper American products from dominating the market. The U.S. government supports its dairy sector with hefty direct subsidies (new window) . The U.S. dairy industry says it's not asking for Canada's quotas to be increased or the tariff rates to be decreased. Rather, it wants changes to how Ottawa allocates the quotas: more specifically, who gets them. Big Canadian dairies dominate import quotas Much of the quota volume is allocated to major Canadian-owned dairy processing companies such as Saputo (new window) and Agropur (new window) . Industry analysts on both sides of the border say such companies have little incentive to import U.S. products that would compete with their own. According to the U.S. producers, this restricts their access to the Canadian market. Their evidence for that claim: Canadian trade statistics (new window) showing tariff-free imports from the U.S. have almost never reached the quota limits in any category. WATCH | What Donald Trump gets wrong (and right) about Canada's dairy tariffs: For five years, Canada's been playing games with these tariff rate quotas, said Morris. That's a lot of volume that should have been able to reach Canadian consumers. Despite those complaints, Canada's imports of U.S. dairy products have risen significantly since the CUSMA quotas took effect in 2020. Those imports totalled $897 million in 2024, according to Statistics Canada data (new window) , more than four times the value of imports in any year before 2020. Trade certainly should be far higher than it is, said Morris. That was what USMCA promised to deliver and quite frankly has fallen far short. A key change the U.S. producers would like to see is for Canada to grant retailers and the food-service sector a share of the tariff-free quotas, allowing them to import some U.S. dairy products directly. The U.S. industry also wants Canada to be far stricter in taking away allocations from importers that fail to use their full quota in a given year. While a bill that Parliament passed in June (new window) bars Ottawa from agreeing to raise the dairy import quotas or lower the tariffs, it doesn't prevent other changes to the system, leaving Canadian trade negotiators some wiggle room. WATCH | Canada's supply management system, explained: 'An inherent mismatch' The other chief complaint from the U.S. focuses on Canada's cheap exports of milk proteins, also described as milk solids, such as skim milk powder. The Americans argue that because Canada's supply management system keeps domestic prices artificially high, Canada can sell its excess production of milk proteins internationally at artificially low prices, undercutting the competition. It frankly makes no sense that you could have one of the highest milk prices in the world and yet be exporting dairy protein at some of the lowest prices globally, said Morris. That's just an inherent mismatch. Canada's pricing of milk solids for the export market is currently the subject of a U.S. International Trade Commission investigation, ordered by (new window) the Trump administration, with a hearing scheduled for Monday (new window) . Dairy Farmers of Canada declined a request for comment on the case. During the recent election, all major parties expressed support for supply management and stated that it would be off the table in upcoming trade negotiations, the organization said in a news release (new window) in June. The Trump administration is not the first to accuse Canada of breaching CUSMA terms on dairy. Enlarge image (new window) Cows wait to be milked at a dairy farm in Granby, Que., on Feb. 5. Photo: The Canadian Press / Christinne Muschi Joe Biden's administration twice took legal action over Canada's handling of the dairy quotas, claiming it was unfairly undermining (new window) U.S. access to the Canadian market. The U.S. won the first dispute (new window) , which it launched in 2021, but failed (new window) to win the second, in 2023. Now in 2025, Rasdall Vargas says her industry wants Canada to be willing to hear its true concerns and do something about them. Ultimately, when we have a trading partner who isn't taking our concerns seriously until they're threatened to do so, it's also not a good feeling from our side, she said. Whatever anyone thinks about Trump's bluster on Canadian dairy, Rasdall Vargas believes it's having an impact. I think that's the president's way of having our back, probably more abrasively than Canada would like, she said. I will say I've never seen Canadian dairy interests take U.S. concerns about Canadian dairy policy more seriously than in the past six months. Mike Crawley (new window) · CBC News · Senior reporter Mike Crawley has covered Ontario politics for CBC News since 2009. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in B.C., spent six years as a freelance journalist in various parts of Africa, then joined the CBC in 2005. Mike was born and raised in Saint John, N.B. Follow Mike Crawley on Twitter (new window)
