Days after President Donald Trump and top administration officials toured Alligator Alcatraz and gave the migrant detention center a ringing endorsement, the federal government is saying it has nothing to do with the state-run facility deep in the Everglades.
“The Department of Homeland Security has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded Florida’s temporary detention center,” the agency wrote in court records filed Thursday.
Alligator Alcatraz is a Florida-run project. The state and its contractors were tasked with building out the facility. But the court documents sang a very different tune than DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has over $600 million available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for Florida to tap for reimbursement. At the site on its opening day Tuesday, Noem credited her agency with approaching Florida to collaborate on the site.
“My general counsel … called up the attorney general and the governor and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about partnering with us on a detention facility?’” said Noem. “This facility is exactly what I want every single governor in this country to consider doing with us.”
In a separate filing, a top official of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the DHS agency tasked with arresting and deporting immigrants — says that ICE’s role has been limited to ensuring compliance with detention standards.
“The State of Florida is responsible for the funding and construction of the facility,” wrote Thomas Giles, assistant director for ICE field operations.
The court filing, issued as a response to a lawsuit accusing the government of sidestepping federal environmental law in building the facility, appears to put some distance between the feds and the new facility.
The lawyer leading the suit against the administration, Paul Schwiep of Coffey Burlington, said he saw this move coming.
Posted by John3262005
5 Comments
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May the entire ICE windfall from the OBBB be consumed in showboating, graft, incompetence, and infighting like this.
Imagine shooting and killing your own dog and having that turn out to be, like, only the 197th worst thing you’ve done in your life.
“Soviet Government denies the existence of forced labour camps in Siberia”
Interesting this is happening at the same time the most recent elections showing politics has become much less polarized in terms of racial terms