By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed on Friday to temporarily block the Trump administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. under a process known as humanitarian parole — a ruling that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.
U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Department of Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand “expedited removal” for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.
The case “presents a question of fair play” for people fleeing oppression and violence in their home countries, Cobb said in her 84-page order.
“In a world of bad options, they played by the rules,” she wrote. “Now, the Government has not only closed off those pathways for new arrivals but changed the game for parolees already here, restricting their ability to seek immigration relief and subjecting them to summary removal despite statutory law prohibiting the Executive Branch from doing so.”
Fast-track deportations allow immigration officers to remove somebody from the U.S. without seeing a judge first. In immigration cases, parole allows somebody applying for admission to the U.S. to enter the country without being held in detention.
Immigrants’ advocacy groups sued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to challenge three recent DHS agency actions that expanded expedited removal. A surge of arrests at immigration courts highlights the lawsuit’s high stakes.
The judge’s ruling applies to any non-citizen who has entered the U.S. through the parole process at a port of entry. She suspended the challenged DHS actions until the case’s conclusion.
Cobb said the case’s “underlying question” is whether people who escaped oppression will have the chance to “plead their case within a system of rules.”
“Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that — as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges — may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?” she added.
A plaintiffs’ attorney, Justice Action Center legal director Esther Sung, described the ruling as a “huge win” for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their families. Sung said many people are afraid to attend routine immigration hearings out of fear of getting arrested.
“Hopefully this decision will alleviate that fear,” Sung said.
Since May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After being arrested, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.
President Donald Trump sharply expanded fast-track authority in January, allowing immigration officers to deport someone without first seeing a judge. Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.
“Expedited removal” was created under a 1996 law and has been used widely for people stopped at the border since 2004. Trump attempted to expand those powers nationwide to anyone in the country less than two years in 2019 but was held up in court. His latest efforts amount to a second try.
ICE exercised its expanded authority sparingly at first during Trump’s second term but has since relied on it for aggressive enforcement in immigration courts and in “workplace raids,” according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
Spagat reported from San Diego.
Federal agents escort a man to a transport bus after he was detained following an appearance at immigration court, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Federal immigration enforcement has ramped up under the Trump administration, leaving many in Detroit’s immigrant communities feeling anxious and unsettled. Policies have shifted the ground beneath them, especially in District 6, home to much of Southwest Detroit’s immigrant population.
Gabriela Santiago‑Romero represents that area on Detroit City Council. For her, the issue is personal. She’s a Mexican immigrant who grew up in the same neighborhood she now serves. Since enforcement efforts have increased, she’s been more present in the community, talking with neighbors about their rights and advocating for ways they can live with less fear.
Today, she joins us on The Metro to talk about the pressure, opportunity, and accountability shaping both her work and her community and what it means to take on issues deeply connected to her own identity.
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The U.S. government is building an immense 5,000-person detention camp in west Texas, government contract announcements said, sharply increasing the Trump administration’s ability to hold detained immigrants amid its ever-growing mass deportation efforts.
A Defense Department contract announcement on Monday said Acquisition Logistics, a Virginia-based firm, had been awarded $232 million in Army funds to build the facility, which would be used for single immigrant adults.
Procurement documents called it a “soft sided facility,” a phrase often used for tent camps.
The announcement came just weeks after Florida authorities rushed to construct a new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” which was built on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland in the Florida Everglades.
The announcement said the new facility would be built in El Paso, which is home to Ft. Bliss, an Army base that stretches across parts of Texas and New Mexico.
President Donald Trump recently signed a law setting aside $170 billion on border and immigration enforcement, including $45 billion for detention, even as the number of illegal border crossings has plunged. ICE will see its funding grow by $76.5 billion over five years, nearly 10 times its current annual budget.
Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference at the Nashville International Airport, Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A federal judge in Maryland has prohibited the Trump administration from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immediate immigration custody if he’s released from jail in Tennessee while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, according to an order issued Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide notice of three business days if Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to initiate deportation proceedings against him.
The judge also ordered the government to restore the federal supervision that Abrego Garcia was under before he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That supervision had allowed Abrego Garcia to live and work in Maryland for years, while he periodically checked in with ICE.
“Defendants have done little to assure the Court that absent intervention, Abrego Garcia’s due process rights will be protected,” Xinis wrote in her order.
Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies following his wrongful explusion to El Salvador in March. Trump’s administration violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.
The smuggling case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on.
Abrego Garcia’s criminal attorneys in the Tennessee case want him released from jail to await trial, but only if he won’t be taken into ICE custody and deported. A federal judge in that criminal case on Wednesday affirmed that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that appropriate release conditions will mitigate any risk of flight or any danger to the community.
Crenshaw then sent the case back to U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, who originally held that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release last month. Holmes has held off on ordering his release at the request of Abrego Garcia’s own lawyers. On Wednesday, she signed yet another order putting off his release from jail, this time for 30 days.
U.S. officials have said they’ll try to deport Abrego Garcia to a country that isn’t El Salvador, such as Mexico or South Sudan, before his trial starts in January because they allege he’s a danger to the community.
Abrego Garcia’s American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, is suing the Trump administration in Xinis’ Maryland court over his wrongful deportation in March and is trying to prevent another expulsion.
U.S. officials have argued that Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally around 2011 and because a U.S. immigration judge deemed him eligible for expulsion in 2019, although not to his native El Salvador. Following the 2019 decision, Abrego Garcia was released under federal supervision, received a federal work permit and checked in with ICE each year, his attorneys have said.
The Trump administration recently stated in court documents that they revoked Abrego Garcia’s supervised release when they deported him in March, claiming that he was in the MS-13 gang.
Associated Press writer Travis Loller contributed from Nashville, Tenn.
Supporters of Kilmar Abrego Garcia rally outside of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., where a hearing was scheduled to be held on returning him to Maryland, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
These are some of the tactics that led over 300 faith leaders and community members to march this week from Corktown to Detroit’s ICE field office. The goal of the demonstration — organized by the advocacy group Strangers No Longer — was to deliver a pastoral letter demanding humane enforcement.
Immigrant rights and environmental justice advocate Odalis Perales is working with Strangers No Longer to break down barriers between faith communities, in schools, and among police about the challenges and tension of this moment.
She joined The Metro on Thursday to talk about her progress and respond to ICE’s refusal to engage with the group’s pastoral letter and demands.
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
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Michigan’s attorney general is co-leading a letter to Congress asking it to pass a law to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from hiding their identity while in the field.
ICE officers have received scrutiny in recent months for wearing plainclothes and masks and allegedly not identifying themselves as law enforcement during raids.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that’s alarming.
“Often times is that ICE is not even coordinating with local or county law enforcement. So, when people have a question, say, ‘Oh my God, are these really ICE officers or not? Are they out here executing search warrants or conducting operations?’ Locals don’t even know about it,” she said.
Nessel said cases of people impersonating ICE officers to commit crimes have accompanied agents covering their faces.
Nessel said the masked tactics could make it difficult for Michigan law enforcement agencies working alongside their federal counterparts, noting Michigan law enforcement generally isn’t allowed to cover their faces while on duty.
“My agents? You know, we execute search warrants all the time. But they’re not masked when they do it and they’re absolutely identified as being special agents of the Department of the Attorney General. We should expect no less from ICE or any other federal agency,” Nessel said.
Despite the concerns, it’s unlikely the letter signed by 21 state attorneys general will spur any action by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress.
Earlier this month, lawmakers approved a spending bill that included funding increases for a ramp up in immigration enforcement and hiring of more staff.
ICE has not responded to a request for a comment.
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By JULIE WATSON, AMY TAXIN and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press
Federal authorities now say they arrested more than 360 people at two Southern California marijuana farms last week, characterizing the raids as one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January.
One farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof during the chaotic raids on Thursday after the Department of Homeland Security executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, northwest of Los Angeles.
The raids came more than a month into an extended crackdown across Southern California that was originally centered on Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.
What happened?
During the raid on the Camarillo site, crowds gathered seeking information about their relatives and to protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.
Glass House Brands is a major cannabis company in California that started a decade ago with a greenhouse in the Santa Barbara County community of Carpinteria.
Federal immigration agents talk to Rebecca Torres, second left, after she tried to block a military vehicle during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
The company said it later expanded, buying another facility in the Ventura County community of Camarillo that included six tomato and cucumber-growing greenhouses. Glass House converted two of them to grow cannabis, according to the company’s website.
Relatives of workers at the Camarillo site said tomatoes are still grown at the location in addition to cannabis.
Arrest numbers keep rising
The federal government initially reported that some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally were arrested.
Then on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 319 people were arrested and said on X it was “quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office.”
Milk is poured on a protester’s face after federal immigration agents tossed tear gas at protesters during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
A day later, the arrest numbers, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were up to 361 from the two locations.
The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping.
One death reported from the raids
A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during the raid at the farm in Camarillo died Saturday of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known fatality during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.
She posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.
He called his wife in Mexico and told her he was hiding from federal agents during the raid Thursday. A doctor told his relatives that the ambulance crew who took him to a hospital said he fell about 30 feet, Duran said.
Why was the business raided?
The government says it is investigating potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuse. Initially, DHS said 10 immigrant children were on the property. They later increased that number to 14.
Authorities declined to share the warrant for the operation. The administration has released no additional information about the children, including their ages and what they were doing on the property when authorities arrived. DHS has not provided details to back up its claim of possible trafficking or other abuse, and the company has not been charged with anything.
It was unclear if any of the minors were the children of farm workers at the sites or if they came to the U.S. without an adult.
Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In California, children as young as 12 can work on farms outside of school hours, while those as young as 16 can work during school hours if they are not required to attend school, the agency said on its website.
No one under the age of 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.
The California Department of Cannabis Control conducted a site visit in May 2025 and observed no minors on the premises, a spokesperson said. After receiving a subsequent complaint, the state opened an investigation to ensure full compliance with state law.
U.S. citizens were among those arrested
Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the raids for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
Among those arrested was California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X.
Essayli said Caravello was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement and was to appear in court Tuesday.
The California Faculty Association said Caravello was taken away by agents who did not identify themselves nor inform him of why he was being arrested. The association said he was then held without being able to contact his family.
Caravello was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister that was stuck underneath someone’s wheelchair, witnesses told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.
A federal judge on Monday ordered Caravello to be released on $15,000 bond. He’s scheduled to be arraigned August 1.
Separately, the federal Bureau of Prisons said George Retes, 25, was in their custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Sunday.
Retes’ family told KABC-TV on Sunday that he is a U.S. citizen, works as a security guard at the farm in Camarillo and is a disabled U.S. Army veteran. They said Retes was trying to drive away during the clashes between protesters and agents when an officer stopped him, broke his car window and shot pepper spray before dragging him out of his car and arresting him.
Retes’ sister, Destinee Magaña, told the television station on Sunday that the family had been trying to get in touch with her brother.
Federal agents “thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn’t, he was trying to reverse his car,” Magaña said.
Neither Retes nor Magaña responded to emails Monday from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The region prepares for more raids
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is now proposing to provide cash assistance to residents too scared to leave their homes to go to work.
The plan comes as part of a sweeping executive order the mayor signed on Friday that instructs Los Angeles officials “to bolster their protocols and training to prepare for federal immigration activity occurring on city property.”
The order also establishes a police department working group for immigrants and expands access to resources for impacted families. In addition, it seeks records from the federal government on what the city deems unlawful raids from federal agencies.
The monetary relief will not come from city funds but from philanthropic partners, officials said. Immigrant rights groups will distribute cash cards similar to those used to provide financial assistance to Angelenos struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t immediately clear how people will qualify to receive the cards.
The goal is to help people who have been deterred “from attending school and church, seeking city services, accessing health care, and going to work,” the order states.
Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Protesters standoff against federal immigration agents during a raid in the agriculture area of Camarillo, Calif., Thursday, July 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker)
When a Venezuelan immigrant was arrested last year and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Jefferson County, the teen’s mother hoped for justice.
J.E., who is being identified by her initials to protect her daughter’s identity, wanted the suspect to be convicted, locked away. She wanted to know he couldn’t hurt anyone else, at least for a while.
But that’s not what happened.
Jesus Alberto Pereira Castillo, 21, posted $5,000 bail and was released from the Jefferson County jail on Nov. 27, 2024, court records show. He was subsequently arrested by federal immigration authorities and was deported from the country by May.
“Clerk notified via email that deft” — the defendant — “has been removed from the country,” Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington wrote in a May 19 order.
The deportation effectively ended the state’s criminal case against Castillo — the prosecution cannot continue without his presence in court, though he remains wanted on a warrant and could be prosecuted if he were to return to Colorado.
There was no conviction, no sentence, no jail time — just a deportation.
“It’s been pretty hard on me and my daughter,” J.E. said. “She doesn’t feel like she is getting the justice she deserves. It just has been so easy for immigrants to come into the country after they are deported. So the fear is that he might relocate somewhere else in the U.S. and do this to someone else. Them deporting him ruined justice for my daughter.”
At least two dozen defendants and one witness in criminal cases in metro Denver have been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported in the middle of ongoing state prosecutions since September, The Denver Post found. District attorneys across the region started to notice more defendants disappearing into ICE custody this spring, as President Donald Trump ramped up deportations nationwide.
Colorado district attorneys who spoke with The Post said such deportations are not in the interest of justice and do not improve public safety over the long term.
“If I can’t hold someone accountable because the defendant is deported before we’ve reached a just outcome in the case, and the defendant finds their way back here and commits another crime, that does not make the community safer,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said. “If victims of crime are afraid to call the police after they have been sexually assaulted or some other terrible crime because they are worried about being deported, that makes our community less safe.”
The defendants deported were charged with crimes that included driving under the influence, car theft, drug distribution, assault, domestic violence, attempted murder and human trafficking.
Again and again, court records reviewed by The Post showed criminal cases stalled by deportations.
“Def does not appear as he was deported and is no longer in the U.S.,” a document notes in the file for a 26-year-old man from Brazil who was accused of swinging a knife at his wife.
“Deft no longer in the country. Defendant (failed to appear),” a record states in the file for a 32-year-old man from Mexico charged with driving a stolen car.
‘Full force of the law’
Detectives with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Police Department spent six months building a case against a 28-year-old man from El Salvador who they alleged sold drugs and was connected to a woman who fatally overdosed at an Arapahoe County apartment complex in October.
The investigation included a drug deal with an undercover Denver detective and ongoing surveillance. The man was charged with four felony counts related to drug dealing and two counts of child abuse after the six-month investigation culminated in his arrest on April 9.
The man’s arrest affidavit notes that he was arrested by the Aurora Police Department’s SWAT team, and then, without further explanation, says he was taken into custody by ICE.
Aurora police spokesman Joe Moylan said the city’s SWAT team assisted in the arrest and then turned the man over to the sheriff’s office while at the scene. Anders Nelson, a spokesman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, said the agency “partners with ICE” when pursuing cases against suspected non-citizen drug dealers.
“ICE uses various means to positively identify these individuals, and so when they are arrested, ICE agents respond to identify the individual so that we can charge them accordingly under their correct name,” Nelson said. “In this case, the subject had a lengthy criminal history that included active warrants for his arrest and had entered the U.S. illegally on several occasions, and so ICE agents took custody of him.”
The suspect accused of selling drugs was deported within a month. The state criminal case remains open.
“Deft has been deported,” the man’s court records noted on May 9.
In an emailed statement, Denver ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki said the federal agency “arrests aliens who threaten public safety and commit crimes.”
Before their recent arrests and deportations, the two men from El Salvador and Brazil had previously been cited only for traffic violations in Colorado, according to records kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The man from Mexico had prior convictions for car theft and drug possession.
“ICE recognizes the importance of addressing unlawful actions with the full force of the law, ensuring that individuals are held accountable for their actions,” Kotecki said in the statement. “We are committed to creating safe and thriving communities by supporting effective and fair law enforcement practices.”
Tristan Gorman, a criminal defense attorney, noted that ICE’s mid-case deportations, which come before a defendant is convicted of a crime, are “completely disregarding the constitutional presumption of innocence.”
Mason, who serves as DA for Adams and Broomfield counties, said federal agencies “are under enormous pressure to implement the policies of the current administration.”
“This is new,” he said of the growing number of mid-case deportations.
Long-used process is no longer reliable
In the past, when ICE detained defendants while their state cases were ongoing, prosecutors relied on court orders called writs to ensure the defendants still appeared in court. A writ in this context is a judge’s order to a custodial agency, like a jail or immigration detention center, requiring the agency to bring the defendant to court.
ICE is no longer reliably complying with writs to produce defendants for their state hearings, First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King said.
“It’s hard to know and it’s hard to predict how a writ will be honored or not,” she said. “…A writ was our standard process that we relied on to keep someone available for a criminal proceeding. It is not consistently working.”
ICE hasn’t communicated its policies or procedures in any cohesive way to her team of Jefferson and Gilpin county prosecutors, King said. Her office is relying on personal connections between staff and officials at ICE to try to ensure defendants in federal custody are brought to court.
“It’s felt pretty ad hoc, and often reliant on us being very proactive,” she said.
The Aurora ICE Processing Center, as seen on Sept. 15, 2023, in Aurora, Colorado. (Photo by Daniel Brenner/Special to The Denver Post)
ICE officials informed the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver Sheriff Department in June that the agency would no longer comply with writs for detainees in immigration custody to physically appear in the counties’ criminal courts.
“ICE Denver is no longer honor (sic) writ from Denver County Court due to the Denver County Jail do not (sic) comply with immigration detainer or fail to transfer custody of aliens in a safe and orderly manner,” Hung Thach, a supervisory detention and deportation officer in the Denver field office, wrote in a June 16 email to Denver officials.
In a statement issued to 9News and Colorado Public Radio, Denver Field Office Director Robert Gaudian said ICE would not honor the writs because agency officials were not confident the detainees would be returned to ICE’s custody after their state court appearances.
Kotecki did not respond to a request to share that statement with The Post. He previously has requested blanket anonymity for his statements as a spokesman for the federal agency, which The Post declined to grant. He also has said he would no longer provide information to The Post unless the newspaper complied with his request for anonymity.
“In the past, ICE Denver and the Adams County sheriff have enjoyed a great working relationship, with ICE honoring writs for trials and the sheriff notifying us of an alien’s release,” Gaudian said in the statement, according to 9News. “This relationship must be reciprocal, though. If I’m not confident that the sheriff will return an alien to us, then I cannot in good conscience release that individual.”
Denver sheriff’s spokeswoman Daria Serna defended the department’s practices for handling writs in a statement Wednesday.
“The Denver Sheriff Department’s policy and practice for the transfer of people in custody are in alignment with state and local laws,” she said.
ICE approach varies by jurisdiction
So far in Boulder, immigration authorities have largely complied with writs to produce defendants for state court hearings with just a handful of exceptions, said Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney.
The bigger risk for his office is not knowing about ICE detainment in time to seek a writ and delay deportation, because federal agents are failing to consistently alert prosecutors when they arrest defendants in state criminal cases, he said.
“ICE should provide a notification anytime they pick someone up and the person is a defendant,” Dougherty said. “That has not always happened. What has happened, more often than not, is we find out from the defense attorney or someone connected to the defendant that someone has been arrested by ICE and held for possible deportation.”
Dougherty noted that deportations seem to be happening much faster than in past years. When a defendant is deported in the middle of a case, it has a broad impact, he said.
“The victim never had his or her day in court,” he said. “We couldn’t do justice. There is no conviction, no sex offender registration and no consequences. And the person is deported to a country. We have no reason to believe the person is held responsible for the crime they were accused of.”
In Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, prosecutors have not had any issues with ICE agents deporting defendants mid-case, said 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler. He said federal agents have given his office warnings when ICE is interested in defendants, which has allowed prosecutors to revoke defendants’ bonds to keep them in jail — in state custody — while the criminal case is pending.
Gorman, the defense attorney, said revoking bond simply because a person could be deported is fundamentally unfair.
“We’re just basically saying to them, ‘Yeah, we put all these terms and conditions on your bond and you’ve got to comply with them or we will revoke your bond,” she said. “But even if you do absolutely everything right and show up at all your court dates, we might revoke your bond anyway… even though you followed all the rules.”
Arrests at courthouses
Colorado law prohibits ICE agents from arresting people at or near state courthouses for civil immigration purposes — a line that federal agents have crossed multiple times this year, including in Denver and on the Western Slope.
Law enforcement officers gather near a vehicle on a street near Fox Street and Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver, near the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse, on Feb. 12, 2025. (Photo provided by Lupe Gonzalez)
Federal agents have also been routinely making immigration arrests at Denver’s federal courthouses, which are not covered by the state prohibition.
In Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties, federal agents monitored courthouse dockets in order to detain defendants for immigration proceedings, Ninth Judicial District Chief Judge John Neiley wrote in an April 8 order instructing federal agents to stop.
“In short, these types of arrests make courthouses less safe, frustrate the process of justice, and could have a chilling effect on litigants, witnesses, victims, court personnel and other members of the public who have a right and obligation to participate fairly in the judicial system,” Neiley wrote in the order.
Although the practice is against Colorado law, there are no criminal penalties for federal agents who make such prohibited arrests. Rather, state law says they can be held in contempt of court or sued by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Spokesman Lawrence Pacheco said the office could not confirm or comment on any such investigations.
“Attorney General (Phil) Weiser is concerned about reports of ICE arrests at state courthouses interfering with state criminal prosecutions and having a chilling effect on witnesses and victims in criminal cases,” Pacheco said. “Federal immigration arrests at courthouses make our communities less safe and violate state law.”
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents prepares for a national operation targeting sex-crime offenders in Denver on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge in New Hampshire issued a ruling Thursday prohibiting President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship from taking effect anywhere in the U.S.
Judge Joseph LaPlante issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s order and certified a class action lawsuit including all children who will be affected. The order, which followed an hour-long hearing, included a seven-day stay to allow for appeal.
The judge’s decision puts the birthright citizenship issue on a fast track to return to the Supreme Court. The justices could be asked to rule whether the order complies with their decision last month that limited judges’ authority to issue nationwide injunctions.
The class is slightly narrower than that sought by the plaintiffs, who wanted to include parents, but attorneys said that wouldn’t make a material difference.
“This is going to protect every single child around the country from this lawless, unconstitutional and cruel executive order,” said Cody Wofsy, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents and their infants. It’s among numerous cases challenging Trump’s January order denying citizenship to those born to parents living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others.
At issue is the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Trump administration says the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means the U.S. can deny citizenship to babies born to women in the country illegally, ending what has been seen as an intrinsic part of U.S. law for more than a century.
“Prior misimpressions of the citizenship clause have created a perverse incentive for illegal immigration that has negatively impacted this country’s sovereignty, national security, and economic stability,” government lawyers wrote in the New Hampshire case.
LaPlante, who had issued a narrow injunction in a similar case, said while he didn’t consider the government’s arguments frivolous, he found them unpersuasive. He said his decision to issue an injunction was “not a close call” and that deprivation of U.S. citizenship clearly amounted to irreparable harm.
In a Washington state case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judges have asked the parties to write briefs explaining the effect of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Washington and the other states in that lawsuit have asked the appeals court to return the case to the lower court judge.
As in New Hampshire, a plaintiff in Maryland seeks to organize a class-action lawsuit that includes every person who would be affected by the order. The judge set a Wednesday deadline for written legal arguments as she considers the request for another nationwide injunction from CASA, a nonprofit immigrant rights organization.
Ama Frimpong, legal director at CASA, said the group has been stressing to its members and clients that it is not time to panic.
“No one has to move states right this instant,” she said. “There’s different avenues through which we are all fighting, again, to make sure that this executive order never actually sees the light of day.”
The New Hampshire plaintiffs, referred to only by pseudonyms, include a woman from Honduras who has a pending asylum application and is due to give birth to her fourth child in October. She told the court the family came to the U.S. after being targeted by gangs.
“I do not want my child to live in fear and hiding. I do not want my child to be a target for immigration enforcement,” she wrote. “I fear our family could be at risk of separation.”
Another plaintiff, a man from Brazil, has lived with his wife in Florida for five years. Their first child was born in March, and they are in the process of applying for lawful permanent status based on family ties — his wife’s father is a U.S. citizen.
“My baby has the right to citizenship and a future in the United States,” he wrote.
Reporting by Holly Ramer and Mike Catalini, Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow Florida to enforce an immigration law making it a crime for people who are living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state.
The high court’s action will keep the law on hold while a legal challenge continues. The court did not explain its decision and no justice noted a dissent.
Florida’s law made it a misdemeanor for people to enter the state if they don’t have legal status. The measure is similar to a Texas law that also has been blocked by a federal appeals court.
Immigrants rights groups filed lawsuits on behalf of two unnamed, Florida-based immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, arguing that immigration is a federal issue beyond the power of the states. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s appeal to the Supreme Court said the state has a right to use the law to protect itself from the “irreparable harm” of illegal immigration.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams barred the enforcement of the new law in April. Uthmeier’s office then unsuccessfully petitioned the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to override that decision.
Wednesday’s order is the latest blow for Uthmeier in a months-long battle. In June, Williams found the DeSantis appointee to be in contempt for instructing officers to continue enforcing the new law despite the judge’s orders to stop enforcement.
“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” Uthmeier said on social media.
Uthmeier, who DeSantis tapped for the position in February, has also been credited for championing a new state-run immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Environmental groups sued in June to block the facility from being built.
A U.S. Supreme Court police officer stands watch as anti-abortion protesters rally outside of the Supreme Court, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Efforts to attract and settle immigrants in Detroit may have been a contributing factor in the city’s recent population growth, according to recent reporting from The Conversation.
Research shows that Immigration has a positive impact on the economy through a larger employee talent pool, increased social and civic engagement, and offsetting the decrease of Detroit native born children.
Despite a national shift in tone towards immigrants, cities like Detroit are prepping for a globalized future by investing in programs that encourage and support immigrants looking to start a life here.
The Detroit Tigers are facing the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday at Comerica Park. The Tigers are close to locking up their division and are proving to be the team to beat. This may be the year of the Tiger after all. First pitch for today’s game is at 6:40 p.m.
Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.
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By REBECCA SANTANA and GISELA SALOMON, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is ending the temporary status for nearly 80,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans that has allowed them to live and work in the U.S. for a quarter of a century after a devastating hurricane hit Central America, according to federal government notices — a move that comes as the White House pushes to make more immigrants in the U.S. eligible for deportation.
The notices are part of a wider effort by the current administration to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations of immigrants. It’s doing this by going after people in the country illegally or those who’ve committed crimes that make them eligible for deportation but also by removing protections from hundreds of thousands of people, many admitted under the Biden administration.
Temporary Protected Status is a temporary protection that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people of various nationalities who are in the United States, which prevents them from being deported and allows them to work. The Trump administration has aggressively been seeking to remove the protection, thus making more people eligible for removal.
Administration says conditions have changed
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday in the Federal Register — in a notice set to become official on Tuesday — that Secretary Kristi Noem had reviewed the country conditions in Honduras and Nicaragua. She concluded the situations there had improved enough since the initial decision in 1999 that people currently protected by those temporary designations could return home.
The department estimated that roughly 72,000 Hondurans and 4,000 Nicaraguans in the U.S. are covered by the status that will now expire in roughly two months. However, the TPS Alliance, which advocates for immigrants covered by these temporary protections, estimated that about 40,000 Hondurans would be affected because many had obtained legal residency through various immigration channels.
Temporary Protected Status for both nationalities expired on July 5. The notices said the protections will be terminated 60 days after the notices are officially published in the Federal Register.
TPS is usually granted when conditions in someone’s home country make it difficult to return. People covered by it must register with the Department of Homeland Security. and then they’re protected from being deported and can work.
However, it does not grant them a pathway to citizenship and the secretary must renew it regularly, often in 18-month intervals.
When their status officially ends, Hondurans and Nicaraguans currently covered by the Temporary Protected Status can be deported and their work permits will be terminated if they can’t find another avenue to stay in the country.
Critics say ‘temporary’ became permanent
Critics say that successive administrations — especially the Biden administration — essentially rubber-stamped these renewals regardless, and people covered by what’s supposed to be a temporary status end up staying in the United States for years.
The Trump administration has already terminated TPS for about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians, and thousands of people from Afghanistan, Nepal and Cameroon. Some of them, like Venezuelans, Haitians and Ukrainians, have pending lawsuits at federal courts.
Another 250,000 Venezuelans are still protected under TPS until September, as well as thousands of Syrians. TPS for Ethiopians expires in December, for Yemenis and Somalians in March 2026, and for Salvadoreans in September 2026.
During the Biden administration, the number of people protected by TPS grew significantly. Nearly 1 million Venezuelans and Haitians were protected.
Jose Palma, co-coordinator at the National TPS Alliance, said the termination announced Monday will affect people who have lived in the United States for nearly three decades.
“They have established families. Investments. It is a community that …. has undergone annual background checks, that has shown … all its contributions to this country,” Palma said. “It’s cruel what’s happening.”
Litigation delayed ending the protections
Temporary protections for both countries were initially granted back in 1999 following 1998’s Hurricane Mitch. The first Trump administration attempted to end the protections but they both remained in place after litigation.
Homeland Security wrote in the federal register notice that Honduras had “witnessed significant changes in the 26 years since Hurricane Mitch’s destruction.”
“Honduras has made significant progress recovering from the hurricane’s destruction and is now a popular tourism and real estate investment destination,” the department wrote. They department said the Honduran government in January had launched a plan called “Brother, Come Home” which aims to help Hondurans deported from the U.S. with money and help finding a job.
Of Nicaragua, Noem wrote: “Nicaragua has made significant progress recovering from the hurricane’s destruction with the help of the international community and is now a growing tourism, ecotourism, agriculture, and renewable energy leader.”
Honduras Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio García expressed disappointment at the announcement Monday.
“They argue that Honduras has foreign investment, tourism and its program ‘Honduran come home’ and that there are conditions to return,” García said. But he said it was the anti-immigrant sentiment of the Trump administration that was really behind it.
“They came to power with that and they’re getting it done for their electorate,” he said.
Salomon reported from Miami. Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras contributed to this report.
FILE – Supporters of temporary protected status immigrants hold signs and cheer at a rally before a conference announcing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its decision to end a program letting immigrants live and work legally in the United States outside of a federal courthouse in San Francisco, March 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Two protesters were arrested on Detroit’s west side Monday after police say they attempted to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from detaining a resident in the neighborhood.
ICE was in the area to arrest a Honduran man who had already been deported twice but returned to the U.S. each time. Protesters say the immigration officers failed to show a signed warrant for his arrest. Officers used pepper spray on protesters when confronted.
At a Detroit City Council meeting Tuesday, Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero said ICE could have avoided the protest by simply showing a signed warrant.
“The family knew their rights. They said they didn’t show us the warrant. They didn’t even leave me a copy of the warrants,” she said. “That, to me, seems like a very basic, simple solution to this not getting out of hand…”
At least one of the two protesters arrested have been charged in federal court for allegedly blocking ICE agents from leaving after making the arrest.
Police Chief Todd Bettison says protesters should stay peaceful, and warned that anyone who interferes with federal agents will be arrested.
Other headlines for Wednesday, July 2, 2025:
The Department of Natural Resources’ explorer guide program is offering more than 100 free activities over the July Fourth holiday weekend. DNR guides will lead programs at 30 state parks Friday through Sunday, with activities ranging from poetry writing to fossil-hunting.
The Brightmoor Artisan Collective will host a Nigerian cooking class at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 9, offered in partnership with the Detroit Partnership for Food Learning and Innovation program through Michigan State University Extension. The registration fee is $15 per person. Register by emailing edwar649@msu.edu.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is hosting a drop-in summer studio, with the next session taking place on Thursday, July 3. Visitors of all ages will have the chance to make art with some creative prompts and materials provided. Next week, MOCAD will welcome families for its Family Day with free exhibitions for kids, teens and parents.
Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is ramping up its plans to revoke the citizenship of immigrants who’ve committed crimes or pose a national security risk, according to a recent memo underscoring the Trump administration’s hardline immigration agenda.
Efforts to identity and go after those suspected of cheating to get their citizenship are not new to this administration.
But the public push is raising concerns from advocates, who have accused the administration of trying to use immigration enforcement for political purposes. It’s receiving increased scrutiny after a Republican member of Congress suggested that Zohran Mamdani, the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, should be subject to denaturalization proceedings.
Here’s a look at the denaturalization process and what the Justice Department’s memo means:
Denaturalization cases are rare
The U.S. government can strip a naturalized immigrant of their citizenship if they are criminally convicted of naturalization fraud or if the government proves through civil proceedings that they illegally obtained their citizenship through fraud or misrepresented or concealed facts on their application.
For years, the government’s denaturalization efforts focused largely on suspected war criminals who lied on their immigration paperwork, most notably former Nazis. The Justice Department filed just more than 300 total cases between 1990 and 2017.
An initiative that began under the Obama administration called Operation Janus expanded those efforts by seeking to identify people who had used different identities to get green cards and citizenship after they were previously issued deportation orders.
In 2016, an internal watchdog reported that 315,000 old fingerprint records for immigrants who had been deported or had criminal convictions had not been uploaded to a Department of Homeland Security database that is used to check immigrants’ identities. The same report found more than 800 immigrants had been ordered deported under one identity but became U.S. citizens under another.
The first Trump administration made such investigations a bigger priority, creating a Justice Department section focused on denaturalization cases.
But even then, the number of denaturalization cases remained small, as the administration didn’t have the resources to bring many amid an onslaught of legal challenges to immigration policies it had to defend against, said Matthew Hoppock, an attorney in Kansas who represents people in denaturalization cases.
Justice Department says it will prioritize certain cases
The push was announced in a memo from the recently confirmed head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate. Shumate said the cases the department will prioritize include people who “pose a potential danger to national security,” people who commit violent crimes, members of gangs and drug cartels and people who commit Medicaid fraud and other types of fraud.
The benefits of the denaturalization process, Shumate wrote, “include the government’s ability to revoke the citizenship of individuals who engaged in the commission of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, or other serious human rights abuses; to remove naturalized criminals, gang members, or, indeed, any individuals convicted of crimes who pose an ongoing threat to the United States; and to prevent convicted terrorists from returning to U.S. soil or traveling internationally on a U.S. passport.”
Hoppock said the memo sort of “blows the doors open” for the administration to file as many as many denaturalization cases as it has the resources to file.
Lawyers raise alarm about the potential impact
The broad language in the memo raises the prospect “that any offense, at any time, may be used to justify denaturalization,” said Christopher Wellborn, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
“It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where the government invokes unsubstantiated claims of gang affiliation or uses an individual’s criminal record to claim that citizenship was illegally procured,” Wellborn said in a statement.
Others worry the administration’s public push will stoke fear among naturalized immigrants.
“The more you talk about it, the more you frame it as ‘we’re coming after your naturalization, we’re coming after you,’ the more of a chilling effect we see on people applying for naturalization,” said Elizabeth Taufa, senior policy attorney and strategist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. “Even those folks that really are eligible for naturalization.”
Critics have accused the Trump administration using immigration enforcement to go after people because of their speech — most notably in the case of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, whom it has sought to deport over his role in pro-Palestinian protests.
“One of our ongoing concerns is will they target these politically, will they start combing through people’s immigration files if they don’t like you or if they think you don’t agree with the government,” Hoppock said.
“I think most Americans would support the idea of stripping someone of citizenship if they got it through fraud and they are also a dangerous person,” he said, but the concern is if they start going through “regular folks’ immigration files to find a T that is not crossed or an I that is not dotted so they can use it as a weapon.”
Justice Department recently secured denaturalization in one case
The department last month announced that it had successfully secured the denaturalization of a man who was convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material.
The British man had become a U.S. citizen after enlisting in the U.S. Army under a provision that provides a pathway to citizenship for U.S. service members, officials said. He only listed a speeding ticket when asked on his naturalization application if he had “ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested,” and he became a U.S. citizen in 2013.
Months later, he was arrested in Louisiana on child sexual abuse material charges and convicted, according to the department.
“The laws intended to facilitate citizenship for brave men and women who join our nation’s armed forces will not shield individuals who have fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship by concealing their crimes,” Shumate said in a statement at the time. “If you commit serious crimes before you become a U.S. citizen and then lie about them during your naturalization process, the Justice Department will discover the truth and come after you.”
FILE – The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a press conference with Attorney General Pam Bondi, May 6, 2025, at the Justice Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Friday ruled that individual judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but the decision left unclear the fate of President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship.
The outcome was a victory for the Republican president, who has complained about individual judges throwing up obstacles to his agenda.
But a conservative majority left open the possibility that the birthright citizenship changes could remain blocked nationwide. Trump’s order would deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally.
The cases now return to lower courts, where judges will have to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the high court ruling, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion. Enforcement of the policy can’t take place for another 30 days, Barrett wrote.
The justices agreed with the Trump administration, as well as President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration before it, that judges are overreaching by issuing orders that apply to everyone instead of just the parties before the court.
The president, making a rare appearance to hold a news conference in the White House briefing room, said that the decision was “amazing” and a “monumental victory for the Constitution,” the separation of powers and the rule of law.
In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The court’s decision is nothing less than an open invitation for the government to bypass the Constitution.” This is so, Sotomayor said, because the administration may be able to enforce a policy even when it has been challenged and found to be unconstitutional by a lower court.
Rights groups that sued over the policy filed new court documents following the high court ruling, taking up a suggestion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh that judges still may be able to reach anyone potentially affected by the birthright citizenship order by declaring them part of “putative nationwide class.” Kavanaugh was part of the court majority on Friday but wrote a separate concurring opinion.
States that also challenged the policy in court said they would try to show that the only way to effectively protect their interests was through a nationwide hold.
“We have every expectation we absolutely will be successful in keeping the 14th Amendment as the law of the land and of course birthright citizenship as well,” said Attorney General Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts.
In a notable Supreme Court decision from 1898, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the court held that the only children who did not automatically receive U.S. citizenship upon being born on U.S. soil were the children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government; enemies present in the U.S. during hostile occupation; those born on foreign ships; and those born to members of sovereign Native American tribes.
The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
Trump and his supporters have argued that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen, which he called “a priceless and profound gift” in the executive order he signed on his first day in office.
The Trump administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, a phrase used in the amendment, and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.
But states, immigrants and rights groups that have sued to block the executive order have accused the administration of trying to unsettle the broader understanding of birthright citizenship that has been accepted since the amendment’s adoption.
Judges have uniformly ruled against the administration.
The Justice Department had argued that individual judges lack the power to give nationwide effect to their rulings.
The Trump administration instead wanted the justices to allow Trump’s plan to go into effect for everyone except the handful of people and groups that sued. Failing that, the administration argued that the plan could remain blocked for now in the 22 states that sued. New Hampshire is covered by a separate order that is not at issue in this case.
The justice also agreed that the administration may make public announcements about how it plans to carry out the policy if it eventually is allowed to take effect.
MIAMI (AP) — A Canadian man being held by immigration officials in South Florida has died in federal custody, officials said.
Johnny Noviello, 49, died Monday afternoon at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement press release said. The cause of death was under investigation.
Noviello was being detained pending removal from the U.S., officials said. He entered the U.S. in 1988 on a legal visa and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. He was convicted of drug trafficking and other charges in 2023 and sentenced to a year in prison, officials said.
Noviello was picked up by ICE agents at his probation office last month and charged with removability because of his drug conviction, authorities said.
Seven other immigration detainees have died in federal custody this year, with 11 deaths reported in 2024.
FILE – The Federal Detention Center stands on Sept. 15, 2022, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is racing ahead with construction of a makeshift immigration detention facility at an airstrip in the Everglades over the opposition of Native American leaders who consider the area their sacred ancestral homelands.
A string of portable generators and dump trucks loaded with fill dirt streamed into the site on Thursday, according to activist Jessica Namath, who witnessed the activity. The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield located in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles west of downtown Miami.
A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is helping lead the project, did not respond to requests for comment.
State officials have characterized the site as an ideal place to hold migrants, saying there’s “not much” there other than pythons and alligators.
Indigenous leaders dispute that and are condemning the state’s plans to build what’s been dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz ” on their homelands. Native Americans can trace their roots to the area back thousands of years.
For generations, the sweeping wetlands of what is now South Florida have been home to Native peoples who today make up the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.
“Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe’s traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations,” Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote in a statement on social media.
There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages in Big Cypress, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, Cypress testified before Congress in 2024.
“We live here. Our ancestors fought and died here. They are buried here,” he said. “The Big Cypress is part of us, and we are a part of it.”
Garrett Stuart, who lives about 3 miles from the site, described the crystal clear waters, open prairies and lush tree islands of Big Cypress as teeming with life.
“Hearing the arguments of the frogs in the water, you know? And listen to the grunt of the alligator. You’re hearing the call of that osprey flying by and listening to the crows chatting,” he said. “It’s all just incredible.”
Critics have condemned the detention facility and what they call the state’s apparent reliance on alligators as a security measure as a cruel spectacle, while DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of Florida’s muscular efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“To have alligators and pythons be the security guards, only someone who’s never spent time in the swamp would ever say something like that,” Stuart said. “They’re afraid of human beings.”
The Florida National Guard is preparing to send up to 100 soldiers to the facility on July 1 to provide site security and staff augmentation, and other support “as directed.”
In this image from undated video released by the Office of Attorney General James Uthmeier shows an isolated Everglades airfield about 45 miles (72 kms.) west of Miami that Florida officials said an immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” is just days away from being operational. (Courtesy of the Office of Attorney General James Uthmeier via AP)
“We don’t have a set timeline for this mission due to the fluid nature of the situation, but we will stay on the ground for as long as we’re needed and at the direction of Governor DeSantis,” Guard spokesperson Brittianie Funderburk said in a statement.
Tribal leaders and environmentalists are urging the state to change course, noting billions of dollars in state and federal funds have been poured into Everglades restoration in recent years, an investment they say is jeopardized by plans to house some 1,000 migrants at the site for an undetermined amount of time.
Indigenous leaders and activists are planning to gather at the site again on Saturday to stage a demonstration highlighting why the area is “sacred” and should be “protected, not destroyed.”
“This place became our refuge in time of war. It provides us a place to continue our culture and traditions,” Miccosukee leader Betty Osceola wrote in a social media post announcing the demonstration.
“And we need to protect it for our future generations,” she added.
Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
This image grab from video shows activity at an immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” located at an isolated Everglades airfield. (WSVN via AP)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion of her Central America trip.
The agreements expand the Trump administration’s efforts to provide the U.S. government flexibility in returning migrants not only to their own countries, but also to third countries as it attempts to ramp up deportations.
Noem described it as a way to offer asylum-seekers options other than coming to the United States. She said the agreements had been in the works for months, with the U.S. government applying pressure on Honduras and Guatemala to get them done.
“Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well,” Noem said. “We’ve never believed that the United States should be the only option, that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the United States.”
The U.S. has had such an agreement with Canada since 2002.
The practical challenge was that all three Central American countries at the time were seeing large numbers of their own citizens head to the U.S. to escape violence and a lack of economic opportunity. They also had extremely under-resourced asylum systems.
In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed deals with El Salvador and Guatemala that allowed the U.S. to send migrants from other nations there. But in Guatemala’s case it was to only be a point of transit for migrants who would then return to their homelands, not to apply for asylum there. And in El Salvador, it was broader, allowing the U.S. to send migrants to be imprisoned there.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that Mexico would not sign a third safe country agreement, but at the same time Mexico has accepted more than 5,000 migrants from other countries deported from the U.S. since Trump took office. She said Mexico accepted them for humanitarian reasons and helped them return to their home countries.
The U.S. also has agreements with Panama and Costa Rica to take migrants from other countries though so far the numbers sent have been relatively small. The Trump administration sent 299 to Panama in February and fewer than 200 to Costa Rica.
The agreements give U.S. authorities options, especially for migrants from countries where it is not easy for the U.S. to return them directly.
Sherman reported from Mexico City.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and President of Guatemala Bernardo Arévalo converse as they walk to a meeting at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, in Guatemala City, Thursday, June 26, 2025 . (Anna Moneymaker/Pool Photo via AP)
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don’t agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions.
Twenty states sued after they said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cut off funding to states that refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. barred federal transportation officials from carrying out that threat before the lawsuit is fully resolved.
“The Court finds that the States have demonstrated they will face irreparable and continuing harm if forced to agree to Defendants’ unlawful and unconstitutional immigration conditions imposed in order to receive federal transportation grant funds,” wrote McConnell, the chief judge for the federal district of Rhode island. “The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects.”
On April 24, states received letters from the Department of Transportation stating that they must cooperate on immigration efforts or risk losing the congressionally appropriated funds. No funding was immediately withheld, but some of the states feared the move was imminent.
Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont filed the lawsuit in May, saying the new so-called “Duffy Directive” put them in an impossible position.
“The States can either attempt to comply with an unlawful and unconstitutional condition that would surrender their sovereign control over their own law enforcement officers and reduce immigrants’ willingness to report crimes and participate in public health programs — or they can forfeit tens of billions of dollars of funds they rely on regularly to support the roads, highways, railways, airways, ferries, and bridges that connect their communities and homes,” the attorneys general wrote in court documents.
But acting Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom told the judge that Congress has given the Department of Transportation the legal right to set conditions for the grant money it administers to states, and that requiring compliance and cooperation with federal law enforcement is a reasonable exercise of that discretion. Allowing the federal government to withhold the funds while the lawsuit moves forward doesn’t cause any lasting harm, Bloom wrote in court documents, because that money can always be disbursed later if needed.
But requiring the federal government to release the money to uncooperative states will likely make it impossible to recoup later, if the Department of Transportation wins the case, Bloom said.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks during a news conference to provide a status update on Newark Liberty International Airport at the Department of Transportation in Washington, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
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