Latest news with #Sabines
Miami Herald
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Who's in charge at Alligator Alcatraz? ‘We've gotten a lot of runaround'
Immigration attorneys and environmental activists — even the Mexican government and the Archdiocese of Miami — have all asked who's in charge at Alligator Alcatraz. They say they can't get a straight answer. 'We've gotten a lot of runaround,' Archbishop Thomas Wenski told the Miami Herald after trying unsuccessfully to provide religious services for detainees. 'We don't know who's really accountable for that facility, whether it's the state of Florida or the federal government.' Now nearly a month since Florida opened the country's newest, most novel immigration detention center, the question of whether the state or federal government has jurisdiction over the facility — and especially its detainees — continues to puzzle legal experts, tangle up lawsuits and complicate due process for the people held there. Attorneys say they have repeatedly been told their clients at Alligator Alcatraz are not in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though immigration enforcement is historically the realm of the federal government. Environmental activists suing in federal court to shut down the facility have been told the Trump administration is barely involved. Lawmakers given a tour of the detention camp said they were told it is functioning under a federal program that gives state and local officials the power to hold immigrants for the federal government — even though the state entity in charge has no such agreement. The confusion has real-life consequences for the hundreds of men held in the detention camp's tents and pens, and potentially broad implications for immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, which may replicate the precedent established in Florida. The Trump administration is inviting states and local governments to apply for FEMA 'detention support' grants from a $608 million pool to fund the expansion of facilities to hold immigrant detainees. 'We've had several other states that are actually using Alligator Alcatraz as a model for how they can partner with us as well,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this month during a press conference in Tampa. THE COURTS Uncertainty around who has jurisdiction of the facility's detainees is frustrating the Mexican government's ability to push for the release of 14 Mexican nationals held at the site, including two brothers brought there on July 11 after being arrested by Florida Highway Patrol. Juan Sabines, the Mexican Consul in Orlando, told the Miami Herald in a Thursday interview that the immigration attorney hired by the Mexican government to represent the brothers is still trying to find a judge who can be assigned to their cases. The Mexican government is now working to transfer them out of the detention center and to an ICE facility, he said. 'This is a prison that is not under the custody of ICE and that has no immigration judge on site,' Sabines said. 'We are in limbo.' Also complicating their cases, according to Sabines: the brothers were only assigned an Alien Registration Number — the identifier used by ICE to keep track of detainees — for the first time on Wednesday. Sabines' comments echoed frustrations aired more than a week ago by immigration attorneys who said they had been unable to find a court assigned to handle cases for Alligator Alcatraz detainees. The state said Friday that on-site legal services would be available for detainees starting Monday. MIXED MESSAGES Federal and state officials have delivered mixed messages about who's in charge of what. Department of Homeland Security officials have attempted to distance themselves from the facility as a whole in court filings and deferred most questions about Alligator Alcatraz to the state. But Gov. Ron DeSantis has consistently evoked the Trump administration's oversight of immigration detainees, saying Friday during a press conference at the facility that it is the federal government taking detainees to and from the site. 'I know DHS has a whole process of how they do it,' DeSantis said, telling reporters that the Department of Homeland Security is now running flights to and from the detention center. 'Once they get on that plane, DHS handles them and processes them and deports them accordingly.' A high-ranking Trump administration immigration official, however, said in response to a federal lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the facility's operations that it's the state, not ICE, that decides which detainees end up at Alligator Alcatraz. 'The ultimate decision of who to detain' at Alligator Alcatraz, wrote Thomas P. Giles, acting deputy associate director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for the Trump administration, 'belongs to Florida.' The Department of Homeland Security has said that the state is managing the facility, and that immigrants arrested under a program granting local law enforcement immigration powers are to be detained at the site. The agency did not answer questions about whether they have any kind of agreement with the state to manage the detention center, or whether detainees held there fall under federal jurisdiction. The Florida Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions. Scott Hiaasen, a Coffey Burlington attorney representing the environmental groups who filed the lawsuit, said the question of who is running the detention center is crucial to the suit because it's based on a federal statute requiring an environmental review of major federal actions. 'It shouldn't be a mystery to either the state or federal government where the legal authority is for this place,' Hiaasen said. 'What they're trying to do, at the end of the day, is pretend like this facility is not governed by federal law.' Beyond the bounds of 287(g) Another representation from Giles — that the site is operating under the 287(g) program granting local and state agencies immigration-enforcement powers typically reserved for the federal government — has also confused lawmakers and immigration experts. Scores of Florida law enforcement agencies have active 287(g) agreements, including the Florida National Guard, which has stationed guardsmen at the detention center. But the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is tasked with running the site, is not one of them. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told her during a tour of the site that his agency does not have the direct 287(g) authority to run the facility. She and other Democratic lawmakers said officials clarified to them many times that ICE 'is calling the shots' while they toured Alligator Alcatraz on July 12. 'They [FDEM] are not designated to manage this facility on behalf of the federal government,' said Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat. 'We were not able to get clarity on whose 287(g) authority this facility is being run.' Jennifer Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy organization for low-income immigrants, said she's baffled by how Alligator Alcatraz came to be, if it's not being run by ICE. Whitlock said the state and federal governments' statements that Alligator Alcatraz is authorized through the state's various 287(g) agreements sound inaccurate. A 287(g) agreement permits local and state officers to hold detainees in 'custody,' but it does not allow for detention without ICE oversight, Whitlock said. Operating a state detention center, rather than holding detainees in state prisons and county jails, is stretching the 287(g) agreement beyond the bounds of what Congress intended, Whitlock said. In the federal statute allowing 287(g) agreements, it says that any officer, employee, or political subdivision of the state is acting under the 'color of Federal authority.' Also, anyone acting on behalf of a 287(g) agreement is supposed to be under the supervision of the U.S. Attorney General — which would be Pam Bondi. 'I don't know if there is actually a plan in place for any sort of oversight,' Whitlock said. The DeSantis and Trump administrations have been clear that Alligator Alcatraz is not a federal detention center, but have been less forthcoming about what it is under state and federal law. On the state side, officials have said that the facility is not a state correctional institution because it's managed by the Division of Emergency Management, not the Department of Corrections. If that is the case, it's not legally subject to the state's standards for jails and prisons, Whitlock said. A spokeswoman for Florida's Division of Emergency Management did not answer questions about which laws regulate the operations and oversight of Alligator Alcatraz. The majority of federal immigration detention centers are run through government service contracts, said Nanya Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. Whether through private companies or local governments, there is typically an agreement in place for the federal government to fund the facility while another entity sets it up, staffs it and runs day to day operations. While DeSantis has mentioned the possibility of getting refunded by the Trump administration for the facility's cost — about $450 million a year — DHS officials have said the federal government is not currently funding any aspect of Alligator Alcatraz. Because Florida hasn't been paid, a formal federal contract likely doesn't exist for Alligator Alcatraz, Gupta said. 'This is the Trump administration and the state of Florida being shifty about what authority they're invoking, when it suits them,' Gupta said. 'My guess is that the only way we'll be able to find that clarity, if at all, is through continued litigation in the federal courts.' Miami Herald staff writers Ana Claudia Chacin and Lauren Costantino, and Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
Euronews
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
This ancient amphitheatre near Rome doesn't know if it's a football pitch or a tourist attraction
The Rome Colosseum, Verona's impressive arena – everyone knows Italy's beloved ancient Roman amphitheatres, synonymous with drama and pomp: gladiator conflicts, bloody spectacles and, still to this day, the backdrop to larger-than-life pop concerts and opera performances. Not all of them, however, get quite the same attention. Some lie forgotten or even repurposed in the most unusual of ways – including as sports grounds. In Monteleone Sabino – a small village of barely 1,000 inhabitants a stone's throw from Rome – a recently discovered Roman amphitheatre is nestled away behind bushes and woodland and has turned into the backdrop of the local team's football matches. Public money has been insufficient to bring the site to the public's attention, and local interest appears relatively scant. But two young volunteers are trying to bring their village's heritage to light – and hope that tourists will also make an effort to discover its hidden gem. Trebula Mutuesca: the forgotten ancient Roman town A mere 45 kilometres northeast of Rome and just a 70-minute drive away, Monteleone Sabino looks much like any nondescript, sleepy central Italian town – peppered with terracotta-hued brick bungalows and houses, all clustered around a medieval church and piazza, lined with unassuming cafes, post offices, and the obligatory 'tabacchi' (tobacconist). Among its most distinctive features is the sanctuary of Saint Victoria, a beautiful Romanesque church overlooking the region's rolling hills, which closed after an earthquake in 2016 left it in a precarious condition. But like many other places in the ' Bel Paese ' (beautiful country), Monteleone conceals a unique history – one its own residents were hardly privy to until the end of the last century. Once home to the Sabines – one of the local Italic tribes conquered by the Romans, which gave the village its name – Monteleone stands on what used to be a prosperous 4th-century BC settlement, Trebula Mutuesca. This ancient town boasted its own temple, baths, forum and amphitheatre. It even garnered mentions by ancient Rome's leading literary giants, Virgil and Pliny the Elder. Despite the ancient town's illustrious past and aristocratic population, it eventually fell into disrepair over the centuries, as it was overtaken by vegetation and eventually gave way to the current hilltop village, roughly 1.5 kilometres away from Trebula Mutuesca's centre. While local awareness of an ancient Roman settlement persisted throughout the generations, Trebula Mutuesca fell into oblivion, becoming little more than a faint memory. It was a spell of particularly intense rainfall in the 1950s that ultimately revealed what had been hidden for millennia: the ruins of the amphitheatre complex. A team of archaeologists spent decades trying to uncover the artefacts and remains, taking almost half a century due to a series of delays and interruptions, and only seeing its completion in the 2000s. A historic Roman amphitheatre turned modern-day football pitch? While discovering an entire ancient Roman town may have been any small village's claim to fame (and fortune), in a region oversaturated with historical artefacts, locals merely embedded the uncovered ruins into their village life – reflecting a broader Italian tendency to downplay or neglect the significance of its past. Indeed, prior to the arrival of Northern European archaeologists and historians in the 18th and 19th centuries, Rome's very own ancient ruins were hardly the source of cultural appreciation: the Imperial Forum itself was a makeshift market, while stone from its buildings was used to build many of the city's most iconic monuments. In Monteleone, the grassy site near the amphitheatre was quickly turned into a football pitch, used by the local team, ASD Real Monteleone Sabino, for matches with neighbouring towns. Tucked away behind the village in a bucolic setting encroached by olive groves and overgrown vegetation, blink and you'll miss the entrance to the ancient Roman site, which includes a vast open expanse dotted with walls and arches – once the amphitheatre and its stands – as well as the tunnels underneath the arena that once held ancient gladiator fights and shows. The Romanesque sanctuary of Saint Victoria, located near Monteleone Sabino's amphitheatre, and closed since a 2016 earthquake. Visitors can also see some of the busts and other artefacts found at Trebula Mutuesca in Monteleone's small archaeological museum, open Friday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm for €5 (€3 for young and senior individuals). There have been local efforts to preserve and promote the historical and archaeological significance of the site, including small concerts and exhibits. But insufficient public funds, lukewarm local interest, as well as regional competitiveness – the so-called campanilismo or 'church bell-ism': the distinctly Italian phenomenon of rivalries between parishes – has resulted in Trebula Mutuesca remaining largely underappreciated. 'We want to share our heritage with future generations' For two young Monteleonesi, the ruins of Trebula Mutuesca are more than just a part of their local heritage – it's a passion project and a driving force in their lives. Sara, 25, and Tommaso, 17, discovered their love for archaeology after becoming volunteers for an archaeological conservation project (G.A.T.C) four years ago. 'Archaeological sites are important because, if preserved well, they can have a significant positive impact on the local economy through cultural tourism,' Sara tells Euronews Travel. 'But more than that, they help us understand how people lived, their traditions, and their technologies. Without these treasures, we would lose so much of our history.' The two young conservationists have since channelled their enthusiasm locally and now hold the keys to Trebula Mutuesca's site, giving small tours of the amphitheatre for free every weekend. 'We are the guardians of a millennia-old history, proud to represent the greatness of our ancient city and the Roman legacy that defines our identity,' Tommaso adds. But Sara and Tommaso's efforts have not been entirely rewarded: while they claim to have a positive rapport with the local council, they bemoan what they consider to be the region's lack of willingness to raise awareness and publicise the archaeological site. 'It would be helpful to create some tourist centres, but we understand that the regional financial situation is challenging,' Sara notes. 'It takes a lot of time.' For the few visitors who have already made the journey to the ruins of Trebula Mutuesca, the apparent lack of care and resources in maintaining the ancient ruins has not been lost on them. 'Poorly looked after and appreciated,' one Tripadvisor comment from August 2024 states. '[A]s often happens in Italy.' For the foreseeable future, it seems Monteleone Sabino's ruins will remain off the beaten track, while its football pitch is not going anywhere any time soon. Some may see this all as a sign of Italy's longstanding struggle to fully appreciate its artistic heritage. Or you could say that it shows how life can still be breathed into thousands of years of history – as a sign of continuity with the town's past. Regardless, Sara and Tommaso remain steadfast in their fight to obtain greater recognition of their town's nugget of ancient history. 'Trebula's light still shines in what we do,' Tommaso explains. 'Being heirs of Trebula means carrying on a tradition that continues to inspire and shape us… it gives us our strength and an unbreakable bond with the ancient Roman roots that guide our future.'
