The Associated Press is reporting that Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s director of emergency management, says that the controversial Everglades facility used to detain migrants may be empty within days.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams last week issued a preliminary injunction preventing additional construction and bringing additional detainees to the facility Florida government calls “Alligator Alcatraz.” The judge ordered the detention portion of the facility–a disused airport–to be dismantled. She gave the state 60 days to comply with the order. The facility has faced a continuing series of lawsuits and criticism. A significant proportion of the detainees at the facility are held without charge.
Lawyers for the DeSantis administration are appealing the ruling and have asked the court to stay the order during the appeal.
AP today reported that Guthrie emailed South Florida Rabbi Mario Rojzman on Aug. 22 about providing religious services at the detention facility, telling him that “we are probably going to be down to 0 individuals within a few days.” AP says the email’s authenticity was confirmed even though a spokesperson for Guthrie had not responded to a request for comment. Guthrie was Flagler County’s emergency management director from 2013 to 2016.
The facility opened with a capacity for 1,000 individuals, and with state plans to expand it to 3,000 to 4,000 individuals. The DeSantis administration has refused to say how many individuals were held there, though in late July the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald published a searchable list of over 700 detainees from 40 countries there, half of them from Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba. “A third of the detainees have criminal convictions,” the paper reported. “Their charges can range from attempted murder to illegal re-entry to traffic violations. Hundreds of others only have pending charges. The records do not disclose the nature of the alleged offenses, and reporters have not independently examined each individual’s case.
Game boy says
If Kevin would only stay out of politics and stick to emergency management (which by the way he’s the best in the county) we’d all be safer. With FEMA going away, we Floridians only have Kevin to get us through a disaster.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Another grandstanding flop, by your GOP Governor, wasting Florida tax payer dollar$ to get in the good graces of a convicted felon.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Looks to me it could be headed to Supreme Court.
Deborah Coffey says
So, almost 500 people have been locked up with no real charges, no access to an attorney and no due process. In other words, Florida is now a police state…like Germany in the 1930’s…meaning that I am an enemy of the state because I dare to criticize Donald Trump and his sycophants. We are ALL in grave danger because of this deranged president. Even the MAGAs that Trump called stupid over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal are in danger, simply because they spoke out. Is anyone counting the number of freedoms this administration has taken away from us, how many lies we are told on a daily basis, and how many government institutions that we need to be kept safe he has destroyed? People, we need to unite to save our country and we’d better hurry.