Latest news with #DebbieWassermanSchultz
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump keeps brutalizing immigrants because he's failing at everything else
There seems to be no end to President Donald Trump's and Republicans' cruelty, but don't be fooled: it's all a distraction. The reports coming out of Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention center built in the Florida Everglades, are harrowing. Detainees in the center have reported overflowing toilets, lights on through the night and dismal meals. "This place needs to be shut the hell down," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, said on a press call with the Naples Daily News and other outlets. According to a report from The New York Times, only about 60% of the detainees have criminal convictions. That means 40% did nothing wrong. The facility currently houses about 900 men sleeping in tents. Alligator Alcatraz is a cruel reminder that Trump will do whatever he wants to vulnerable populations in the United States, and only a few Democrats seem willing to call him out on it. It's also cruel for a reason: to appease the MAGA base and keep them from realizing that Trump isn't making good on any of his other promises. And never forget that none of this would be happening if not for Republican support. Trump continues to fail us on the economy Take the economy, for example. Trump campaigned on a promise that he would make it easier for the average family to afford the cost of living, only for his tariff plan and cuts to federal funding to send the economy into a tizzy. The 'Big Beautiful Bill,' Trump's fiscal agenda, is projected to harm working-class families because of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits. His tariff agenda is leading to an increase in inflation and consumer prices, something that will ultimately cost the average American household at least $1,000. Polling on Trump's handling of the economy has consistently been negative, according to Gallup. While it improved slightly in June, it's still much lower than the economic confidence during Trump's first term. Opinion: Republicans hurt rural Americans with their beautiful bill. Then they clapped. Going after immigrants does nothing to solve the unfolding economic crisis in our country. In fact, the pursuit of the Trump administration's strict immigration agenda is likely to harm the economy, thanks to the way it is affecting businesses that rely on undocumented labor. But Trump hopes you don't notice that, and Republicans know this was never about improving an economy that was already thriving in a global market. America's foreign policy is a global joke. US is no longer a force for good. Foreign relations are another area where Trump is failing – likely because he was making promises he couldn't keep. He claimed he would end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – only for both conflicts to continue. He claimed there would be no wars under his leadership, then conducted airstrikes in Iran and nearly plunged the United States into another war. New reporting suggests his bragadocious messaging after those Iran strikes was nonsense. Opinion: White House wants us to see Trump as Superman. We all know he's the villain. He's just now realizing that Russian leader Vladimir Putin can't be trusted, and has finally decided to help Ukraine. Other countries are no longer seeing America as a force for good, according to Ipsos polling over the last six months. Pew Research Center polling shows a lack of confidence in Trump's international leadership abilities. He threatened to annex Greenland and Canada – things that there was no way he'd be able to achieve. He has damaged relationships with allies due to his tariffs and ambitious plans, making the United States an international laughingstock and causing tourism to the country to plummet. But sure, let's brutalize immigrants. The Epstein files mess is engulfing the Trump administration Or consider the Jeffrey Epstein files, which have become a source of contention for the MAGA movement. Back in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed the files existed and were sitting on her desk. Then, in July, she claimed there were no such files. Trump doubled down on this and demanded that everyone stop talking about Epstein, 'somebody that nobody cares about.' At first, this led to a huge backlash among MAGA supporters and conspiracy theorists who wanted answers. Right-wing personality Laura Loomer said in a July 16 interview that this could 'consume' the presidency in the same way Trump's ties to Russia did during his first term. Other pundits, like Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, have dropped the conversation altogether. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. But Trump really, really doesn't want you to focus on the fact that he said he wanted to declassify the Epstein files on the campaign trail. It's best if you just focus on the immigrants who are being treated no better than livestock. After all, Trump says they're the root of the problem in this country, and we should believe that, right? In all seriousness, the cruelty is not the point for a Republican Party that is both successful in pushing its agenda and failing in convincing Americans it's worth pushing. The Trump administration is busy producing smoke and mirrors to pacify its political base by targeting immigrants while failing to improve the lives of the working class. The needless meanness is merely a comforting distraction for an entire political party that can't be bothered to actually help Americans. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alligator Alcatraz is cruel distraction from Trump's failure | Opinion
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
DeSantis under fire for using disaster funds to build migrant detention jail
Officials in Florida diverted crucial disaster preparedness and response resources to support the hasty construction of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention jail by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a newly published report has claimed. Some of the $20m in contracts analyzed by Talking Points Memo (TPM) before they inexplicably disappeared from the Florida department of financial services website went to donors or political allies of DeSantis, the report said. Most of the money went to companies providing construction services, communications equipment to be used by jail staff, and security enhancements, according to TPM. In a separate development on Thursday, it was disclosed that a 15-year-old boy was detained and held at the controversial remote Everglades jail for several days earlier this month, despite the insistence of state and federal authorities that only adults were housed there. DeSantis's alleged raid on resources intended for disaster response has prompted fury from Florida Democrats, who say creating a deficit as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches its peak is the height of irresponsibility. 'DeSantis already operates under a cloud of corruption when it comes to stealing taxpayer dollars,' said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who toured the remote Everglades detention center on Saturday with other Democratic lawmakers, and declared conditions there 'inhumane'. 'It's no surprise he'd siphon off and create shortfalls in our hurricane preparedness funds for this boondoggle, then hide it from the public, or that he'd hand out sweetheart contracts to donors to build this monument to cruelty and denied due process.' DeSantis has said the jail was set up, and will be operated, using $450m in taxpayers' money he expects to be refunded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Yet in the government's response to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups seeking to close the controversial camp, Trump administration officials have attempted to distance themselves from the project. TPM identified $19,983,785.03 in more than a dozen contracts that the state was invoiced for, or paid, from nine separate vendors. Some charged additional 'rush fees' for supplying their products, reflecting the DeSantis administration's urgency to get the camp up and running in time for Donald Trump's visit on 1 July. At least one of the documents confirmed that resources allocated for Florida's 'disaster preparedness' apparatus were diverted to the jail, TPM said, and that all had come from the executive office of the governor and were marked 'procurement per executive order'. The largest contract was for $11,903,977.18 to a company called Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC, a provider of vehicle barriers that were used at DeSantis's 2023 inauguration. The company's chief executive, Peter Whitford, told TPM he did not know if the 100 barrier sets ordered were destined for Alligator Alcatraz. 'What they do with that product is not part of our purview,' he said. Previous reporting by the Miami Herald revealed that at least three vendors who won Alligator Alcatraz contracts had made financial donations to DeSantis or the Florida Republican party. TPM identified a fourth, a company called WeatherSTEM Inc, whose founder Ed Mansouri gave $3,000 to DeSantis in 2021. Mansouri, whose company received a $24,740 contract for two lightning detectors, charged a $750 rush fee on each unit, the documents show. Mansouri told TPM: 'My admiration for Governor DeSantis has nothing to do with my business.' According to the report, copies of all of the contracts were originally posted to the Florida accountability contract tracking system on the website of the state's department of financial services, but mysteriously disappeared during the course of TPM's reporting. None of the state entities contacted by the Guardian for comment responded. Thursday's revelation that an undocumented minor was sent to the jail, meanwhile, angered immigration advocates, who said it showed the chaotic nature of the state's haste to populate it with detainees with no criminal record or active proceedings. The Tampa Bay Times identified the child as a 15-year-old Mexican national named Alexis, who was riding with friends in a vehicle stopped in Tampa by the Florida highway patrol. Troopers handed over the group to the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who sent them to the Everglades facility on the day it opened. Alexis's father told the newspaper he did not know where his son was for several days until he received a call from the camp. The Times said Alexis was now at a federal shelter for migrant children. In an email to the newspaper, Stephanie Hartman, spokesperson for the Florida emergency management division that operates the jail, said Alexis had lied about his age. An alliance of environmental groups, immigration advocates, Native American tribes and Democratic politicians has formed in opposition to the jail. A Move On petition calling for its closure had recorded almost 45,000 signatures by Thursday. 'This place needs to be shut the hell down,' Wasserman Schultz said. 'This internment camp is an outrageously wasteful publicity stunt, designed to hurt immigrants and distract from reckless Republican policies.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmaker says Alligator Alcatraz is an ‘internment camp' after joint GOP-Dem visit: ‘Packed into cages'
A Democratic congresswoman has given a scathing review of 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Florida, describing it as an 'internment camp' that needs to be 'shut the hell down.' Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida's 25th congressional district, said that pictures of the facility 'don't do it justice' and that detainees were being 'packed into cages.' On Saturday Florida lawmakers from both parties took a state-arranged tour of the new 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Everglades. Speaking at a press conference following the tour, Wasserman Schultz said that the walk-through had been 'sanitized' but conditions were nonetheless 'appalling.' 'They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,' she told reporters. 'The only thing inside those cages are their bunk beds, and there are three tiny toilets.' Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida's 25th congressional district, said that pictures of the 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility 'don't do it justice' and that detainees were being 'packed into cages' (AP) On Saturday Florida lawmakers from both parties took a state-arranged tour of the new 3,000-bed detention center that the state rapidly built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Everglades (AP) The units, Wasserman Schultz said, have sinks attached to the toilet resulting in detainees having to 'brush their teeth where they poop.' There was minimal privacy for any person inside, she added. 'This place needs to be shut the hell down. They're abusing human beings in cages,' the congresswoman later added in a post on X. Donald Trump and his allies, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have touted the makeshift detention center — an agglomeration of tents, trailers and temporary buildings constructed in a matter of days — as an efficient and get-tough response to the president's call for mass deportations. Trump and his allies, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have touted the makeshift detention center as an efficient and get-tough response to the president's call for mass deportations (AP) Described as temporary, the detention center is meant to help the administration reach its goal of boosting the U.S. migrant detention capacity from 41,000 people to at least 100,000. The Florida facility's remote location and its name — a nod to the notorious Alcatraz prison that once housed federal inmates in California — are meant to underscore a message of deterring illegal immigration. President Donald Trump visits 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Florida with Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (AP) Despite the outrage of Democrats like Wasserman Schultz, other Republicans who took the tour said the conditions were 'clean, air conditioned and well-kept.' 'The rhetoric does not match the reality,' said State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, a DeSantis ally. 'It's basically all political theater coming from the [Democrats]. What they're saying is pure bullshit.' Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
DeSantis under fire for using disaster funds to build migrant detention jail
Officials in Florida diverted crucial disaster preparedness and response resources to support the hasty construction of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention jail by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a newly published report has claimed. Some of the $20m in contracts analyzed by Talking Points Memo (TPM) before they inexplicably disappeared from the Florida department of financial services website went to donors or political allies of DeSantis, the report said. Most of the money went to companies providing construction services, communications equipment to be used by jail staff, and security enhancements, according to TPM. In a separate development on Thursday, it was disclosed that a 15-year-old boy was detained and held at the controversial remote Everglades jail for several days earlier this month, despite the insistence of state and federal authorities that only adults were housed there. DeSantis's alleged raid on resources intended for disaster response has prompted fury from Florida Democrats, who say creating a deficit as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches its peak is the height of irresponsibility. 'DeSantis already operates under a cloud of corruption when it comes to stealing taxpayer dollars,' said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who toured the remote Everglades detention center on Saturday with other Democratic lawmakers, and declared conditions there 'inhumane'. 'It's no surprise he'd siphon off and create shortfalls in our hurricane preparedness funds for this boondoggle, then hide it from the public, or that he'd hand out sweetheart contracts to donors to build this monument to cruelty and denied due process.' DeSantis has said the jail was set up, and will be operated, using $450m in taxpayers' money he expects to be refunded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Yet in the government's response to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups seeking to close the controversial camp, Trump administration officials have attempted to distance themselves from the project. TPM identified $19,983,785.03 in more than a dozen contracts that the state was invoiced for, or paid, from nine separate vendors. Some charged additional 'rush fees' for supplying their products, reflecting the DeSantis administration's urgency to get the camp up and running in time for Donald Trump's visit on 1 July. At least one of the documents confirmed that resources allocated for Florida's 'disaster preparedness' apparatus were diverted to the jail, TPM said, and that all had come from the executive office of the governor and were marked 'procurement per executive order'. The largest contract was for $11,903,977.18 to a company called Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC, a provider of vehicle barriers that were used at DeSantis's 2023 inauguration. The company's chief executive, Peter Whitford, told TPM he did not know if the 100 barrier sets ordered were destined for Alligator Alcatraz. 'What they do with that product is not part of our purview,' he said. Previous reporting by the Miami Herald revealed that at least three vendors who won Alligator Alcatraz contracts had made financial donations to DeSantis or the Florida Republican party. TPM identified a fourth, a company called WeatherSTEM Inc, whose founder Ed Mansouri gave $3,000 to DeSantis in 2021. Mansouri, whose company received a $24,740 contract for two lightning detectors, charged a $750 rush fee on each unit, the documents show. Mansouri told TPM: 'My admiration for Governor DeSantis has nothing to do with my business.' According to the report, copies of all of the contracts were originally posted to the Florida accountability contract tracking system on the website of the state's department of financial services, but mysteriously disappeared during the course of TPM's reporting. None of the state entities contacted by the Guardian for comment responded. Thursday's revelation that an undocumented minor was sent to the jail, meanwhile, angered immigration advocates, who said it showed the chaotic nature of the state's haste to populate it with detainees with no criminal record or active proceedings. The Tampa Bay Times identified the child as a 15-year-old Mexican national named Alexis, who was riding with friends in a vehicle stopped in Tampa by the Florida highway patrol. Troopers handed over the group to the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who sent them to the Everglades facility on the day it opened. Alexis's father told the newspaper he did not know where his son was for several days until he received a call from the camp. The Times said Alexis was now at a federal shelter for migrant children. In an email to the newspaper, Stephanie Hartman, spokesperson for the Florida emergency management division that operates the jail, said Alexis had lied about his age. An alliance of environmental groups, immigration advocates, Native American tribes and Democratic politicians has formed in opposition to the jail. A Move On petition calling for its closure had recorded almost 45,000 signatures by Thursday. 'This place needs to be shut the hell down,' Wasserman Schultz said. 'This internment camp is an outrageously wasteful publicity stunt, designed to hurt immigrants and distract from reckless Republican policies.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Said ‘Alligator Alcatraz' Would Hold ‘Menacing Migrants.' Most Don't Have Criminal Convictions
When Donald Trump touted his new Florida immigrant detention facility, which he dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' he promised that it would hold 'some of the most vicious people on the planet.' Records obtained by The Miami Herald show the majority of detainees have no criminal convictions. 'It's known as Alligator Alcatraz, which is very appropriate because I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking,' Trump said during a livestreamed event on July 1. 'But very soon, this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.' Only one-third of the approximately 900 immigrants detained at the Florida facility have been convicted of a crime, the Herald reported. Those charges range from little as a traffic violation or illegal re-entry all the way to murder. Another 250 detainees only have immigration violations on their records but no criminal convictions or pending charges. A Syracuse University analysis of government data found that almost half of the people in ICE custody as of late last month did not have a criminal conviction or charge. Many are in the U.S. to seek asylum. Conditions at the detention center are inhumane, said Democratic lawmakers who visited the site on Saturday. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the facility, where immigrants are locked in cells made of chain link fencing with more than 30 other detainees, an 'internment camp.' Those cells are underneath tents, not permanent structures. 'They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,' Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said. She also criticized the quality and amount of food given to immigrants there, noting that while guards received roast chicken and sausage, detainees were given a 'gray turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple and chips.' 'I don't see how that could possibly sustain them nutritionally or not make them hungry,' Wasserman Schultz said. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem defended the conditions in the Everglades detention center in an interview on Sunday. 'Our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers and even federal prisons. The standards are extremely high,' she said on NBC's Meet the Press. Noem even balked at calling the fenced-in areas where detainees are held 'cells.' 'I've been there and I've seen these rooms that they are in. I wouldn't call them 'jail cells,'' Noem said. 'I would call them a facility where they are held and that are secure facilities.' A Guatemalan woman whose husband is detained at the facility said that there are not enough facilities to maintain sanitary conditions. He reported there were not enough facilities to wash hands, and he was unable to take a shower for six days. He was eventually woken at 3 a.m. to take a shower because the lines were so long. 'The detainees are being held in tents, and it is very hot there. They're in bad conditions. … There's not enough food. Sick people are not getting medication. Every time I ask about his situation, he tells me it's bad,' she told CNN last week. In addition to poor conditions, the the detention center's location is highly vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes. The facility may not meet modern hurricane codes. It has already flooded once, the day after its grand opening. 'They are in a facility that is very inaccessible to lawyers, to family members, to oversight,' Renata Bozzetto, deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told The Washington Post. 'So the location being so remote and isolated is a problem. Being in an environmentally fragile ecosystem is a problem. Being constructed with temporary materials will be catastrophic in case of a hurricane.' Rep. Maxwell Frost, another Democrat who toured the facility, said he wanted to investigate reports of backed up toilets and 'feces being spread everywhere,' but officials refused to allow them to see units where migrants were being detained. Instead, they were shown empty barracks. 'It is something everyone, whether you're Democrat, Republican or anything, should be deeply ashamed of,' Frost said. 'Immigrants don't poison the blood of this nation. They are the blood of this nation.' More from Rolling Stone Jordan Klepper Charts Trump's Long History With Jeffrey Epstein on 'The Daily Show' Why the Trump Administration Is About to Set Fire to 500 Tons of Emergency Food Speaker Mike Johnson Splits From Trump, Calls for Release of Epstein Files Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
