Latest news with #ElizabethRicci
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Immigration raid in Florida capital leaves families searching for loved ones
In the aftermath of what was deemed the largest immigration raid in Florida so far in 2025, family members and friends of the more than 100 construction workers detained say they have had trouble locating their loved ones. Some of the laborers were sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Baker County, while some went to Miami's Krome Detention Center. Others were quickly flown to El Paso, Texas, and were still there awaiting removal as of June 3. And some are already in Mexico, just five days after being detained and bused away from their job site in Tallahassee, Florida. But others are still silent, and their friends and family are worried and waiting for a call to know where they are – and if they're safe. Questions about where the detainees were headed and in which detention facilities they would be held have been pending with federal authorities since May 29. Questions about how often detainees are transferred are also pending. "There's no apparent rhyme or reason to where people are sent," Florida-based immigration attorney Elizabeth Ricci said. Her firm, Rambana & Ricci, is representing clients who were detained in a May 29 ICE raid at a construction site of a seven-story mixed-use development called Perla at the Enclave in Tallahassee, the state capital. It could be geography – a close location that's easy to send detainees to – but many of the county detention facilities in the state are at capacity, according to state records. As for the feds sending people to Texas, immigration lawyers generally say it's because judges there are tougher and it's closer to the U.S.-Mexico border, making it easier for removal and harder for lawyers and families to track people down. Some of the laborers were on their way to Texas as soon as the day after the raid, but not everyone could find friends and family, as ICE's Online Detainee Locator System has been unreliable in recent months, according to Ricci. "It's very possible that we are on the (telephone) waiting to have a bond hearing that was scheduled, and unbeknownst to us, the person has been sent to another facility," Ricci said. If a detainee is sent to another court jurisdiction, the attorney has to file the client's paperwork in that district all over again. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders have criticized federal judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, calling it 'lawfare,' referring to the use (or misuse) of legal systems to attack, discredit, or obstruct an opponent. They've publicly denounced one Florida judge, who ruled one of the state's latest immigration laws unconstitutional, saying she ruled beyond her jurisdiction. In the name of being the "toughest" state on immigration, Florida officials also asked the federal government for more leeway to establish its own brick-and-mortar facilities to detain and house more immigrants. Waiving federal standards for detention would allow the state to house more people and for longer, they say, as ICE currently does not have the capability to keep up with the president's and Florida governor's mass deportation mandates. According to the state's immigration enforcement operations plan: 'There is … a major chokepoint in terms of detention. At its current state, ICE is overwhelmed with the number of detainees that have been arrested prior to the state assisting with the process.' Advocates say this has led to some detained immigrants being moved, some up to five times, from ICE detention to county jails, out of state and back in, because of occupancy issues in Florida facilities. There were 1,984 open jail beds in county detention facilities at the end of March, according to a report on vacant beds from Larry Keefe, the executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, to Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula. But 27 of the facilities, some of which are the only detention facilities in their counties, have no vacant beds, according to the March 26, 2025, report. Mariana Blanco, director of operations of the Guatemalan-Mayan Center in Palm Beach County, has been tracking detentions of people in her community since March. Blanco keeps track of their names, country of origin, where they were detained, if they had a criminal record or removal orders, and where they are being held. At least one person fills out the form or calls Blanco to report another detention every day. Blanco said many detainees are held at Krome, recognized as America's oldest immigration detention facility, for weeks and even months. But there is a growing number of detainees who are constantly being transferred from one detention facility to another, making it difficult to alert family or their lawyers, if they have one. 'We have folks who have been detained for months, and we have folks who, within 24 hours, them and their U.S. born-kids were already sent back to their country,' Blanco said. 'There is no way to keep track of the detentions and deportation work." For example, according to Blanco's data, one client was held at Krome, then moved to a Broward County detention facility, and is now at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. Another was held in Stuart, Florida, moved to Louisiana, then brought back to Krome to later be deported. One client has been transferred nine times, Blanco said. The constant transfers have allowed the government to place some immigrants on deportation flights before they could speak with family members or attorneys, Blanco added. Most of her daily calls come from desperate families seeking help to locate their detained family members. Before 8 a.m. many day, Ricci also gets frantic calls from clients who say a family member's hearing has been rescheduled for that day and they just found out, which leaves little time to prepare. "That's all part of this intentional system to make it more difficult for people to have a defense," Ricci said. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@ Valentina Palm covers immigration in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post, a member of the the USA TODAY Network – Florida. Email her at vpalm@ This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: After Tallahassee ICE raid, families struggle to locate loved ones
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Unconstitutional': Immigration experts knock Florida 'blueprint' for mass deportation
Immigration experts argue that Florida's "blueprint" for mass deportation is not only unconstitutional but also an overreach of state authority, effectively displacing federal law. On May 12, Florida officials unveiled a 37-page immigration enforcement operations plan they say will be a model for efforts across the country. It's a "road map" for detention and the transportation of detained immigrants, and it includes potential sites for mass detention centers and projected costs. But immigration attorneys say parts of the plan may result in false imprisonment and exorbitant costs, as the federal government has been reluctant to pay for past and future projects. 'This basically would change how immigration detention is managed, and that flies in the face of several decades of litigation that have established constitutional protections for people in detention and how you even get to be put in detention,' said Elizabeth Ricci, an immigration attorney in Tallahassee. 'If we erode those protections, my concern is, what is going to be eroded, and for who next?' The concerns portend a deepening divide between state-level crackdowns and federal immigration authority, which could lead to potentially far-reaching consequences for civil liberties and the future of immigration enforcement in the U.S. For instance, the plan encourages the suspension of federal detention standards to allow county jails to temporarily house detainees. 'It is anomalous that facilities adequate to confine U.S. citizens are not deemed adequate to house illegal aliens,' the plan says. 'This self-limiting proposition works against achieving the President's goals." But waiving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) guidelines isn't the state's call, Ricci said. 'Who is Florida to tell the federal government how to detain someone in what conditions?' Ricci said. 'That is not something for the Sunshine State to be doing. Is Florida now going to tell the Postmaster General how it should deliver mail or the Mint under what conditions and money should be printed? No.' The state and the feds have different approaches, Ricci said. Florida empowers local officials to enforce minimum standards but the federal system uses uniform, outcome-focused regulations with national oversight. In the plan, the state says the suspension of national detention standards would make space for more people to be housed in county jails and for soft-sided detention centers on state-owned airplane runways "to establish routine air corridors to those nations routinely receiving repatriated illegal aliens. This would be especially useful in prompt removal of aliens under unexecuted Final Orders of Removal." U.S. border czar Tom Homan has previously said the Trump administration plans to lower detention standards, allowing local law enforcement to detain immigrants using state standards instead of more rigorous federal detention guidelines. "As long as you follow your own state standards, if that's good enough for a U.S. citizen in your county, it's good enough for an illegal immigrant detained for us,' he told the National Association of Sheriffs earlier this year. Immigration attorney Neil Rambana, Ricci's husband and law partner, argued that lowering detention standards will create more false imprisonment cases, as many jailers, even as they're deputized by the federal government, aren't getting the proper training in the state's rapid response to Trump's mass deportation mandate. Rambana said since January, more of his clients have been detained beyond the limits of what's called 287(g), an ICE initiative that allows local law enforcement agencies to help "identify and remove criminal aliens who are amenable to removal from the U.S.," according to ICE. Both county jails and ICE have failed to notify and communicate with each other, and immigrants are lingering in jails beyond the 48-hour limit that law enforcement is required to hold them by law, Rambana said. After 48 hours, if bail has been posted and ICE has not picked up the detainee, they can be released. But what if they're not let go, Rambana asks: 'That's a problem that, to me, lays the foundation for false imprisonment. That's something that we, our office, is going to be working with other immigration attorneys to put out there … to keep these guys in check.' The state says they need more detention centers to prevent detainees from being released due to lack of space in ICE detention facilities. "At its current state, ICE is overwhelmed with the number of detainees that have been arrested prior to the state assisting with the process. With the state's assistance, this number will grow by multitudes, which will likely become unsustainable if ICE were to remain operating at its current state," the plan says. The State of Florida Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan outlines the state's attempts to create a "road map" to assist the federal government in its mass deportation agenda. A request for comment from ICE is pending. "The type of synergy envisioned is transformational, in that it provides sustainable, consistent andrepeatable operations through upward and downward flows in the identification-apprehension-detention-removal cycle and, not least, makes the best possible use of taxpayer dollars," the plan says. It also includes plans on how the state can participate in mass deportation without the assistance of the federal government. The state has identified "several brick-and-mortar locations" in northeast and south central Florida that could serve as detention centers and says the Florida Division of Emergency Management could "retrofit" the buildings to comply with federal detention standards. The plan names Camp Blanding as an example of a detention center location and provides a bulleted list of "areas of improvement" to meet federal standards. Camp Blanding is a training site for the Florida National Guard in Clay County. The state would use the 12 vendors they already have contracts with for emergency services to upgrade the facilities and advises that these improvements should be arranged at the same time as hurricane season to optimize the availability and funds. The state has the capacity to house "up to 10,000 undocumented aliens and necessary support staff atlocations designated by the State of Florida or the federal government. These facilities can befully operational within 72 hours and require up to 96 hours to begin setup," the plan states. The state argues the bureaucratic roadblocks are a result of the "deep state" within the federal government and asks the feds to waive or suspend federal rules to speed up Florida's mass deportation efforts. The phones of Rambana, Ricci and Carolina Maluje, an immigration attorney in Miami Lakes, have been ringing even more since the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts began. The first thing Maluje does when she wakes up, she says, is check to see how many new messages she has from family members who say loved ones have been arrested and detained. 'Everyone's nervous. We're scrambling,' she said. Many of those who have been detained in Florida's mass deportation efforts are not criminals, she said. They are farmworkers, roofers, students and laborers with pending asylum cases who have driver's licenses and Social Security numbers. Both Rambana and Maluje said they have clients who have been victims of crime who have chosen not to call law enforcement out of fear they will be detained. While the state has touted deputizing all law enforcement officers to become ICE agents or officers with immigration authority, the move has deterred immigrants, even those with documentation, from calling the police when a crime has been committed. 'Us taxpayers for the state of Florida, have we OK'd this? Have we voted on this?' Maluje said. Previously, Gov. Ron DeSantis has used state funds to send law enforcement agencies to the Texas-Mexico border and to transport Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard. This year, the anti-illegal immigration package that the Florida Legislature and DeSantis passed during a special session set aside almost $300 million for new enforcement measures. The immigration enforcement operations plan released on May 12 provides options for the state to purchase transportation for detainees. A 12-passenger van would cost $80,000 to $90,000 and an extra $34,000 for window tinting, a "3-compartment box" to hold detainees, the installation of live video equipment and law enforcement communications. The state does not say how many vans would be needed, but it does estimate the lease of 21 vehicles for two weeks as approximately $1.5 million and $138,320 to pay the Florida State Guard to drive the vehicles. The plan says FDEM could also hire 42 OPS staff (or "other personal services," basically temps paid by the hour) as drivers for $30 an hour. If the state used a 49-passenger bus retrofitted for detainees, 21 leased buses for two weeks labor including could cost $44.1 million. The plan says ICE "must" reimburse the Florida Department of Emergency Management for actual costs for deportation transportation and for purchasing commercial flights for people eligible for voluntary deportation. But it also says reimbursement by the federal government is unlikely. 'The federal government has shown itself to be very hesitant to commit to any form of reimbursement to past or future immigration operations. There may come a time when, without federal assistance, a long-term immigration support mission may become fiscally untenable,' the plan says. 'It's going to be very expensive for the state if it were to proceed, and I don't think it will, because it's going to be litigated, and then it's going to be expensive in a different way, because taxpayers are going to pay the brunt of defending that litigation,' Ricci said. Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@ This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida mass deportation 'blueprint' is unconstitutional, lawyers say
Miami Herald
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Florida changes the rule on driver's-license renewals for legal immigrants
Legal immigrants in Florida will need to spend more time at swamped DMV offices under a state rule shortening the time their driver's licenses will be valid. The Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Division sent out an advisory this week mandating that new licenses and ID cards for legal immigrants expire no later than one year after they're issued. Existing guidance on the agency's website had given a longer window, saying the expiration dates should match the last day their visas or other legal documents allow them to remain in the United States, which could be far longer than a year. Elizabeth Ricci, an immigration lawyer in Tallahassee who specializes in DMV issues, said the new guidance doesn't impact green-card holders. But for immigrants with work visas or long-term allowances, they'll only be given licenses lasting up to 12 months the next time they need an extension or address change. 'You're going to have to go back every year,' said Ricci, a partner at Rambana & Ricci. 'This is an effort to make licenses more difficult to obtain in Florida.' The new rule was made public Friday in a press release from the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector's Office, which runs some DMV offices in the Miami area. It's not clear what prompted the state's notice. The one-year cap appears to already be mandated by Florida law, as cited in the advisory. A spokesperson for the Highway Safety agency was not available for comment on Friday afternoon. The advisory shouldn't have an immediate impact on the lines that have swamped DMV offices in Miami and across Florida in advance of the nationwide Real ID travel restrictions going into effect next week. The one-year rule only affects renewals, not the expiration dates on existing licenses. But it will have an outsized impact in South Florida, with its large immigrant population. Florida's updated guidance will mean more return trips next year for immigrants who previously could get their licenses and ID cards renewed for multiple years at a time. Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez said he implemented the change this week after getting the state notice. Already, he said, people who came in with visas lasting several years were sent away with one-year licenses. 'If your papers say four years, I can only give you one year,' he said.
