Immigration

One year after it opened, Alligator Alcatraz, the detention center used by Florida and the federal government to house undocumented immigrants, is shutting down.

DHS did not say how many detainees were transferred or where they were taken. Nor did it say whether the facility would close permanently or only temporarily.

Trump's immigration crackdown has met with fierce resistance in Democratic-led sanctuary cities, where police are forbidden from assisting and many locals view the masked federal agents as an invading force. That hasn't been the case in Republican-led Florida, though, where about 350 state and local agencies have signed on to take part in the crackdown.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet on Tuesday approved $90 million in grants for local law enforcement agencies for items related to enforcement of illegal immigration.

Vendors working for the controversial immigration detention facility in the Everglades were reportedly told that it would shut down next month, according to the New York Times and CBS News.

In total, FDEM has spent $458.5 million in emergency funds on illegal immigration enforcement in the past year.

According to the New York Times, Florida officials are in preliminary conversations with the Trump administration to shut down the facility, after the Department of Homeland Security concluded the center is too expensive to operate.

Renewal wait times for the Obama-era program that allows people who were brought to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain in the country and work have increased dramatically in the past year.

U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., wants to overhaul the U.S. immigration system by providing legal pathways for certain immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Republican critics say her bill is too lenient, calling it "mass amnesty." PolitiFact and WLRN analyze whether this legislation would amount to amnesty.

The immigration detention center remains open due to arguments by Florida and the Trump administration. They claimed the state hadn't gotten federal reimbursement, so it wasn't required to follow federal environmental law.