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Florida In Talks With Trump Admin To Shutter Alligator Alcatraz

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Florida officials are reportedly in talks with the Trump administration about shutting down the controversial migrant detention center nicknamed โ€œAlligator Alcatrazโ€ after the Department of Homeland Security concluded the massive facility may be too costly to keep running.

According to a Thursday report from The New York Times, the detention center โ€” which opened in July 2025 with strong backing from President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis โ€” has already cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to operate.

The facility became a national flashpoint almost immediately after opening.

Just days before detainees arrived, Trump toured the site alongside then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DeSantis, praising Floridaโ€™s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration and taking a swipe at former President Joe Biden.

During the visit, Trump joked that Biden โ€œprobably wanted to put me in there,โ€ while admiring the heavy-duty detention setup designed to house illegal migrants deep in the Florida Everglades.

But the project quickly ran into legal and political trouble.

A federal judge ordered the facility shut down in August after environmental groups and a local Native American tribe sued over concerns about the impact on nearby land and wildlife. An appeals court later blocked the shutdown order, allowing operations to continue while the legal fight played out.

The center has also faced criticism from immigrant advocacy groups and detainees, who alleged poor conditions inside the facility, including claims of maggot-infested food, withheld medication, and overcrowded living quarters.

Despite the backlash, supporters argued the facility symbolized the tougher immigration enforcement policies championed by Trump and embraced by Republican leaders frustrated with years of border chaos under Biden-era policies.

Now, with costs reportedly spiraling, Florida and federal officials appear to be reconsidering whether โ€œAlligator Alcatrazโ€ is sustainable long term.

Trump To Sign Order To Prepare Guantanamo Bay For 30K Prisoners

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President Donald J. Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station Friday, April 5, 2019, in Calexico, Calif. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Presidentย Donald Trumpย announced Wednesday that he would sign an executive order for the Pentagon to prepare Guantanamo Bay to detain 30,000 “criminal illegal aliens.”

David B. Gleason from Chicago, IL, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

“Today I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said. “Most people don’t even know about it.”

He said they need 30,000 beds to house the detainees, adding that putting them there will ensure they do not come back.

“Itโ€™s a tough place to get out of,” Trump added.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Haitian Gang Member Shouts โ€˜F*ck Trump,โ€™ Thanks Obama’ During Deportation: Watch

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Illegal Immigration in the United State via Wikimedia Commons

*This article contains graphic language*

Shocking footage…

A Haitian gang member was recorded by Fox News praising former Presidentsย Joe Bidenย andย Barack Obama as he was arrested by ICE for deportation this week.

Fox News filmed several illegal aliens being arrested by ICE in Boston this week as the agency carried out Trumpโ€™s illegal immigration crackdown just days after his inauguration.

โ€œIโ€™m not going back to Haiti!โ€ one man could be heard screaming as he was arrested by ICE agents. โ€œFuck Trump! You feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro! Thank Obama for everything that he did for me, bro!โ€

ICE told Fox News that the man in question was a gang member from Haiti with โ€œseventeen criminal convictions in recent years.โ€

Fox News also recorded the arrest of a Salvadorian illegal alien who had previously been โ€œcharged locally with rape,โ€ but was quickly โ€œreleased by sanctuary jurisdiction,โ€ as well as an illegal alien from Brazil wanted for armed robbery and a Dominican illegal alien who had been charged with drug trafficking and assault with a deadly weapon.

In another moment captured by Fox News, ICE agents arrested an MS-13 gang member for gun charges, as well as his roommate, who was also found to be living in the United States illegally.

โ€œICE says he was released from local custody just the day before,โ€ reported Fox News on the MS-13 gang member. โ€œTheir detainer request was ignored because of sanctuary policies.โ€

The Trump administration has started flying immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally out of the country using military aircraft, a White House spokesperson said Friday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared photos on the social media site X of individuals in handcuffs boarding a military plane.

โ€œDeportation flights have begun,โ€ Leavitt said. โ€œPresident Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.โ€

This week, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan announced ICE had made over 1,000 arrests while carrying out deportation orders.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Birthright Citizenship Order

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A second federal judge moved to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship Wednesday.

Judge Deborah Boardman, a Biden appointee, ruled that the order is likely unconstitutional. This marks the second time a federal court has blocked the policy. The nationwide injunction is slated to remain in place while the case is adjudicated.

Boardman said the civil rights group plaintiffs, five pregnant women whose children would not be granted citizenship under the order, were likely to succeed on the merits. The plaintiffs are represented by the CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

Trumpโ€™s executive order seeks to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in the country unless at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The administration argues that children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders are not โ€œsubject to the jurisdictionโ€ of the United States, a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment.

In January, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour temporarily blocked President Donald Trumpโ€˜s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, deeming the presidential directive โ€œblatantly unconstitutional.โ€ (RELATED: Republican Attorneys General Back Trumpโ€™s Executive Order On Birthright Citizenship)

Trump signed Executive Order 14156, titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, on his first day in office. The order seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents, but it has already encountered significant legal pushback.

Judge Coughenour issued a restraining order against its implementation, siding with several states that argued the executive action violates the 14th Amendment and contradicts long-standing Supreme Court rulings.

The executive order was set to take effect in February, marking a bold attempt to reshape the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship to nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil since its ratification in 1868. Many legal experts, however, argue that any effort to alter this constitutional guarantee would require far more than an executive order.

The Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) affirmed that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to nearly all individuals born in the U.S., regardless of their parentsโ€™ nationality. This precedent has formed the legal backbone of birthright citizenship for over a century.

Former First Lady Reveals The Trump Policy That ‘Keeps Her Awake At Night’

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FLOTUS at Fayetteville, N.C. -The Arts Center speech Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

Former first ladyย Michelle Obamaย expressed fear over Presidentย Donald Trump’s immigration policies, saying they have kept her up at night.ย 

“Now that we have leadership that is sort of indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t,” the former first lady said Monday during an appearance on the podcast “On Purpose with Jay Shetty,” adding that such deportation decisions “aren’t being made with courts and with due process.” 

“I worry for people of color all over this country, and I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody,” she continued. “And that makes me โ€ฆ that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.” 

“And I and I see that when I’m driving around LA. I’m just looking in the faces of folks who could be a victim and I’m wondering, how are you feeling, how do you feel standing on the bus stop,” she said. 

“In this current climate, for me itโ€™s whatโ€™s happening to immigrants,” Obama said when asked about “recent tests of fear” related to individuals facing discrimination over the color of their skin. 

Obama noted that the “fear” does not personally impact her as a former first lady who has police protection. 

“Itโ€™s not the fear for myself anymore,” she continued. “I drive around in a four-car motorcade with a police escort. Iโ€™m Michelle Obama. I do still worry about my daughters in the world, even though they are somewhat recognizable.”

“My fears are for what I know is happening out there in streets all over the city,” she added, referring to her hometown of Chicago. 

During a Monday White House briefing to discuss border enforcement during President Donald Trumpโ€™s first hundred days border czar Tom Homan said that under Trump, unlawful crossings were โ€œhistorically lowโ€ and that the border was the most secure it has ever been. Homan drew a sharp contrast to the record number of illegal immigrants that entered the United States under the Biden administration.

โ€œEvery president I ever worked for took border security seriously because you canโ€™t have national security if you donโ€™t have strong border security,โ€ Homan said. โ€œEven President Obama and President Clinton took some steps to secure the border because they understood national security was important. Joe Biden is the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose. Thatโ€™s just a fact.โ€

Homan accused the Biden administration of weaponizing its immigration policies, motivated by the desire that a future Democrat president would give illegal immigrants released into the country amnesty, saying Biden was โ€œselling this country off for future political power.โ€

Watch:

Contrasting Biden and Trump, Homan said that between 11,000-15,000 people were crossing the border illegally per day this time of the year under Biden, while under Trump, just 178 had crossed in the last 24 hours. During the same time, he said there were 1,800 known โ€œgotawaysโ€ under Biden, compared to just 38 under Trump. Homan added that from January 20 to April 1, 2024, Biden released 184,000 illegals out of federal custody into the country. The Trump administration has only released nine total, including four so they could testify in criminal cases and four with extreme medical conditions.

In total, Homan said that there have been 139,000 deportations under Trump. He added that the administration was prioritizing the estimated 700,000 illegals who have been charged with crimes.

Trump Administration Delivers Historic Border Security Win โ€” Lowest Apprehensions Since 1970

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Trump at the border wall via Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration has closed fiscal year 2025 with a historic milestone on border security โ€” the lowest U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions in more than five decades, according to preliminary enforcement data released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Border agents recorded 237,565 apprehensions in fiscal year 2025 โ€” slightly above the 201,780 apprehensions in 1970 but dramatically below recent levels. The numbers represent an 87% drop compared to the average of the past four fiscal years (1.86 million apprehensions) and showcase what can happen when the federal government finally enforces immigration laws.

This achievement came even though 72% of this yearโ€™s total apprehensions happened during the final 111 days of the Biden administration โ€” before President Trump returned to office and immediately began reversing his predecessorโ€™s โ€œopen-borderโ€ policies.

โ€œFiscal year 2025 shows what happens when we enforce the law without compromise,โ€ said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott. โ€œFor too long, agents and officers were handcuffed by failed policies. Today they are empowered to do their jobs โ€” and the result is the most secure border in modern history.โ€


Reversing Bidenโ€™s Border Chaos

When President Trump took office in January 2025, he inherited what many described as a border crisis fueled by Bidenโ€™s mass-release policies. In just the first 111 days of the fiscal year, under Bidenโ€™s watch, 172,026 apprehensions occurred โ€” nearly three-quarters of the yearโ€™s total.

But once Trumpโ€™s immigration directives took effect, the situation changed dramatically. Over the next 254 days, apprehensions plummeted to 65,539 โ€” just 27% of the fiscal yearโ€™s total.

September 2025 alone saw only about 279 apprehensions per day along the Southwest border โ€” a staggering 95% decline compared to the Biden-era daily average of 5,110. It also marked the fifth consecutive month of zero illegal immigrant releases by Border Patrol โ€” a stark contrast to 9,144 releases in September 2024.

Across all entry points, CBP recorded roughly 26,000 total encounters in September, down 89% from Bidenโ€™s monthly averages.


Strong Action From Day One

President Trump wasted no time taking decisive action to reestablish border control:

  • Deployed additional personnel to the southern border.
  • Ended โ€œcatch-and-releaseโ€, ensuring illegal migrants are no longer released while awaiting hearings.
  • Shut down Bidenโ€™s CBP One app parole loophole, later repurposing the app to help migrants self-deport.
  • Paused parole programs and authorized ICE to cancel parole statuses.
  • Ordered strict enforcement of existing immigration laws, restoring morale and authority to frontline border agents.

These policies stand in sharp contrast to Bidenโ€™s approach, which relied on controversial โ€œparoleโ€ programs and insisted on new legislation instead of acting on existing laws.

Tom Homan Announces End Of ICE Surge Operation In Minneapolis

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By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America - Thomas Homan, CC BY-SA 2.0,

MINNEAPOLIS โ€” Border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that the Trump administration will conclude Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area, saying the large-scale federal immigration enforcement effort achieved its objectives and made the region safer.

Speaking at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, Homan said the stepped-up ICE operation would be scaled back after weeks of heightened federal presence and cooperation with state and local law enforcement. โ€œI have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude,โ€ Homan told reporters.

Homan said the successful results of the mission โ€” including arrests of individuals with criminal histories and disrupting unlawful agitator activity โ€” warranted the drawdown. โ€œTwin Cities and Minnesota in general are and will continue to be much safer for the communities here because of what we have accomplished under President Trumpโ€™s leadership,โ€ he said during his third press conference since being tasked with leading the surge.

Federal officials say the initiative, which began late in 2025, has resulted in thousands of arrests of dangerous illegal aliens and public safety threats, helping stem criminal activity and bolster cooperation with local law enforcement.

Homan outlined that federal officers will either return to their home duty stations or be reassigned elsewhere once the drawdown is complete. โ€œLaw enforcement officers drawing down from this surge operation will either return to the duty stations or be assigned elsewhere.โ€

In recent days, Homan confirmed that 700 of nearly 3,000 federal immigration officers have already been reassigned, a move he framed as responsive to productive coordination with state officials.

The operation had drawn intense national attention and criticism after two Americans โ€” Renรฉe Good and Alex Pretti โ€” were killed in separate confrontations with federal agents during enforcement actions, sparking protests and legal challenges.

Trump Border Czar Lays Down The Law After Democrats Storm ICE Facility

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By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America - Thomas Homan, CC BY-SA 2.0,

President Trump’s border czar issued a stark warning to Democrats who recently stormed a Newark, New Jersey, ICE facility in the name of an “oversight” visit.

Tom Homan’s warning came days after Democratic officials allegedly stormed the ICE facility

“If you cannot support ICE, shame on you. If you can supportย sanctuary cities, shame on you, but you can’t cross that line,” Homan said Wednesday, railing against the Democrats during an appearance on “Kudlow.”

“When you cross a line of impediment, when you cross the line of knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien, when you criminally trespass one of our facilities, we will ask the attorney general to prosecute you.”

“You can’t cross that line of impediment,” he continued.

Homanย previously responded “yes”ย when asked by a reporter if the lawmakers implicated in the situation should face censure or removal of their committee assignments.ย 

He also told Kudlow he had been in touch with Trump counselor Alina Habba, the acting U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey, regarding the matter.

“Alina’s taking it seriously, going through a lot of videotape, talking to a lot of witnesses, and we’ll see where the investigation falls,” Homan shared.

He proceeded to blast the lawmakers as “very inappropriate” and “unprofessional,” stressing the need to control a facility containing “dangerous” illegal immigrant criminals for the safety of all parties โ€“ the detainees, officers and the public.

“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) recently offered a specific warning to DHS officials, including Homan andย Sec. Kristi Noem, regarding Democratic officials entangled in the news.

“You lay a finger on [New Jersey Congresswoman] Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there โ€“ you lay a finger on them, and weโ€™re going to have a problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram.

Homan dismissed the rhetoric, saying the New York Democrat “doesn’t know what she’s talking about” and that he has much more knowledge and experience in the border security realm than she does.

House Republicans have introduced measures to punish the Democrats involved in the altercation, including a censureย resolutionย against Rep. LaMonica McIver, another lawmaker from New Jersey who was at the protest, and aย resolutionย to strip them of their committee assignments.

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned against repercussions for his fellow Democrat lawmakers who clashed with federal agents at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, last week.

During an exchange with Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, Jeffries repeatedly said โ€œtheyโ€™ll find outโ€ when pressed what might happen if the House Democrats involved in the incident were to be arrested by federal authorities or get sanctioned.

New Poll Reveals Shocking Opposition To Trump’s Tariff Plan

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The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Slightly more than half of voters in the U.S. opposeย President-elect Trumpโ€™sย plan to tariff proposal.

Theย poll, released Wednesday, comes as Trump hasย threatened to imposeย 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico and increase tariffs on China.

While 51 percent of respondents opposed Trumpโ€™s tariff plan, 38 percent supported it, the survey showed.

The majority of Democrats, 89 percent, Republicans, 76 percent, and independents, 53 percent, also opposed the plan, the poll found.

More independents, 34 percent, supported Trumpโ€™s tariff plan than Republicans, 12 percent, and Democrats, 7 percent, the survey showed.

Trumpโ€™s tariff threats have been met with a mix ofย reactionsย from global leaders, especially those from two of Americaโ€™s top trading partners, Canada and Mexico. Canadian Finance Ministerย Chrystia Freelandย resigned earlier this week, citing Trumpโ€™s tariff plans in her resignation letter.

โ€œOur country today faces a grave challenge,โ€ Chrystia Freeland said in a letter addressed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. โ€œThe incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 per cent tariffs.โ€

โ€œWe need to take that threat extremely seriously,โ€ she added. โ€œThat means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.โ€

In her letter, Freeland argued for โ€œpushing back against โ€˜America Firstโ€™ economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they bring.โ€

โ€œThat means working in good faith and humility with the Premiers of the provinces and territories of our great and diverse country, and building a true Team Canada response,โ€ she added. 

Trump hit back at Freeland’s “toxic” behavior.

โ€œThe Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,โ€ Trump wrote in a Monday night post on Truth Social while mocking, again, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as โ€œgovernor.โ€ 

โ€œHer behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada,โ€ he added. โ€œShe will not be missed!!!โ€ 

Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin. From Deporting Migrants To Guantanamo Bay

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A federal court on Sunday issued a temporary restraining order blocking theย Trump administrationย from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to the Guantรกnamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp.

Lawyers for the trio said in a legal filing that the detainees “fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantรกnamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang.”

In the filing, the lawyers asked a U.S. District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from flying them to the U.S. military base. The lawyers noted that “the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction.”

The filing came as part of a lawsuit on behalf of the three men filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and Las Americas Immigrant Advisory Center.

Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted theย temporary restraining order, according to attorney Jessica Vosburgh, who represents the three men.

“It’s short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come,” Vosburgh told The Associated Press.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt separately said that flights carrying detainedย illegal immigrantsย had been sent to Guantรกnamo.

Immigrant rights groups sent a letter on Friday demanding access to people who are now being held at the U.S. naval station, arguing that the base should not be used as a “legal black hole.” Guantรกnamo has been criticized around the world for its inhumane abuse and torture of detainees, including interrogation tactics.

The immigrants are being held in the Guantรกnamo detention camp that was set up for detainees in the aftermath of 9/11. The immigrants are separated from the 15 detainees who were already there, including planners in the 2001 terrorist attack.

Trump has promised to expand the detention camp to hold up to 30,000 “criminal illegal aliens.”