Latest news with #immigrantDetention
The Independent
3 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
At least 11 people have died in ICE detention under Trump, as administration on pace for deadliest year in decades
Donald Trump's administration is on pace to have one of the worst years for deaths in immigrant detention in decades following the recent deaths of a Canadian citizen and a Cuban man in federal custody. A 75-year-old Cuban man died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week, CBS News reports, citing a notice sent to Congress of the alleged death. The agency has not publicly disclosed the death yet, though it often announces such fatalities at a delay. His death would bring the total to at least 12 dead in ICE custody since Trump took office. At least two of those deaths were suicides. Critics accuse the administration of allowing conditions to worsen in a sprawling network of overburdened immigration detention centers as the White House pushes to deport millions of migrants in rapid time. The Independent has contacted ICE and the Cuban foreign ministry for comment. All told, 15 people have reportedly died in detention this fiscal year, which includes the final months of Joe Biden's administration. At worst, there were 12 deaths in a single calendar year under the previous three administrations. At the current pace, as many as 24 people could be dead by the end of this calendar year, a staggering figure, though deaths climbed even higher under George W. Bush, reaching 28 in fiscal year 2004. Critics say ICE, in an effort to arrest some 3,000 people a day, is straining the nation's capacity to safely house immigrants slated for removal. , or about 140 percent of the agency's ostensible capacity to hold them. 'These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career,' Paul Chavez, litigation and advocacy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice in Florida, recently told The New York Times. 'Conditions were never great, but this is horrendous.' The most recent deaths include Johnny Noviello, 49, of Canada, who was found unresponsive in a Miami detention center on June 23, and Jesus Molina-Veya, 45, who died on June 7 in ICE custody in Atlanta. The cause of Molina-Veya's death is under investigation. Authorities have noted the 45-year-old Mexican national was found unconscious with with a ligature around his neck. The Canadian government has demanded answers in Noviello's death. "Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from U.S. officials,' Anita Anand, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, wrote on X. Immigration and border enforcement already make up two-thirds of federal law enforcement spending, and the Trump administration's so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' spending package could direct another $168 billion towards immigration and border law enforcement over the next five years, an unprecedented increase.
CNN
14 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Protesters line highway in Florida Everglades to oppose ‘Alligator Alcatraz'
A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center. Hundreds of protesters lined part of US Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail — as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species. Christopher McVoy, an ecologist, said he saw a steady stream of trucks entering the site while he protested for hours. Environmental degradation was a big reason why he came out Saturday. But as a South Florida city commissioner, he said concerns over immigration raids in his city also fueled his opposition. 'People I know are in tears, and I wasn't far from it,' he said. Florida officials have forged ahead over the past week in constructing the compound dubbed as 'Alligator Alcatraz' within the Everglades' humid swamplands. The government fast-tracked the project under emergency powers from an executive order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis that addresses what he views as a crisis of illegal immigration. That order lets the state sidestep certain purchasing laws and is why construction has continued despite objections from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and local activists. The facility will have temporary structures like heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The state estimates that by early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation. The compound's proponents have noted its location in the Florida wetlands — teeming with massive reptiles like alligators and invasive Burmese pythons — make it an ideal spot for immigration detention. 'Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's a lot of alligators,' DeSantis said Wednesday. 'No one's going anywhere.' Under DeSantis, Florida has made an aggressive push for immigration enforcement and has been supportive of the federal government's broader crackdown on illegal immigration. The US Department of Homeland Security has backed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said will be partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But Native American leaders in the region have seen the construction as an encroachment onto their sacred homelands, which prompted Saturday's protest. In Big Cypress National Preserve, where the airstrip is located, 15 traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, remain. Others have raised human rights concerns over what they condemn as the inhumane housing of immigrants. Worries about environmental impacts have also been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention center plans. 'The Everglades is a vast, interconnected system of waterways and wetlands, and what happens in one area can have damaging impacts downstream,' Friends of the Everglades executive director Eve Samples said. 'So it's really important that we have a clear sense of any wetland impacts happening in the site.' Bryan Griffin, a DeSantis spokesperson, said Friday in response to the litigation that the facility was a 'necessary staging operation for mass deportations located at a preexisting airport that will have no impact on the surrounding environment.' Until the site undergoes a comprehensive environmental review and public comment is sought, the environmental groups say construction should pause. The facility's speedy establishment is 'damning evidence' that state and federal agencies hope it will be 'too late' to reverse their actions if they are ordered by a court to do so, said Elise Bennett, a Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney working on the case. The potential environmental hazards also bleed into other aspects of Everglades life, including a robust tourism industry where hikers walk trails and explore the marshes on airboats, said Floridians for Public Lands founder Jessica Namath, who attended the protest. To place an immigration detention center there makes the area unwelcoming to visitors and feeds into the misconception that the space is in 'the middle of nowhere,' she said. 'Everybody out here sees the exhaust fumes, sees the oil slicks on the road, you know, they hear the sound and the noise pollution. You can imagine what it looks like at nighttime, and we're in an international dark sky area,' Namath said. 'It's very frustrating because, again, there's such disconnect for politicians.'
Washington Post
a day ago
- Washington Post
Protesters line highway in Florida Everglades to oppose 'Alligator Alcatraz'
A coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades Saturday to protest the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center. Hundreds of protesters lined part of U.S. Highway 41 that slices through the marshy Everglades — also known as Tamiami Trail — as dump trucks hauling materials lumbered into the airfield. Cars passing by honked in support as protesters waved signs calling for the protection of the expansive preserve that is home to a few Native tribes and several endangered animal species.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Environmentalists sue to stop opening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz' in Everglades
Two environmental groups on Friday sued to halt the construction of an immigrant detention center in the middle of the Everglades, arguing the state had ignored required ecological reviews. Florida officials have said that they plan to open the facility, nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz' by Republicans, as early next week and that it would hold up to 3,000 detainees.
