Miami archbishop condemns Florida detention center known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
Florida’s most senior Catholic leader, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, has condemned the new immigration detention center at Dade-Collier airport, officially known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, in an impassioned statement posted on the archdiocese of Miami’s website.
Wenski is a multilingual Florida native, described in an archdiocese biography as “the blond, blue-eyed son of Polish immigrants, he speaks Spanish like a Cuban, Creole like a Haitian and, ironically, only ‘limited’ Polish”.
After expressing sympathy for the goal of removing criminals from the United States, Wenski argued that “most immigrants are hardworking and honest and only want to build a hopeful future for themselves and their families”.
He went on to note that the US faces labor shortages in areas that are staffed by immigrants, including healthcare and agriculture. “Rather than spending billions to deport people who are already contributing positively to our nation’s well-being, it would be more financially sensible and more morally acceptable for Congress, working with the Administration, to expand legal pathways for non-criminal migrants to adjust to a permanent legal status,” the archbishop wrote.
“It is alarming to see enforcement tactics that treat all irregular immigrants as dangerous criminals,” Wenski added. “Masked, heavily armed agents who do not identify themselves during enforcement activities are surprising – so is the apparent lack of due process in deportation proceedings in recent months.”
“Along these lines, much of the current rhetoric is obviously intentionally provocative,” the cleric added. “It is unbecoming of public officials and corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons’ at the Collier-Dade facility. Common decency requires that we remember the individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives. …
“We also raise concerns about the isolation of the detention facility, which is far from medical care centers, and the precariousness of the temporary ‘tent’ structures in the Florida heat and summer thunderstorms, not to mention the challenge of safely protecting detainees in the event of a hurricane,” Wenski continued.
The archbishop, who once spent a summer in Haiti learning Creole and devoted 18 years of his career to working with Miami’s Haitian community, also wrote in support of Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans who have lived in the US legally with temporary protected status that the administration is now stripping away.
Key events
Interim summary
Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, are now on board Air Force One en route to New Jersey after their visit to observe recovery efforts in Kerrville, Texas, where more than 120 people were killed in flooding in the Fourth of July disaster, and more than 170 remain missing.
Here is an overview of the visit:
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The Trumps were greeted in Kerrville by Texas governor Greg Abbott and received a briefing on the recovery effort, including Kerr county sheriff Larry Leitha and W Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas division of emergency management.
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They then sat down for a televised roundtable discussion about the emergency response that featured comments from the president and the first lady, as well as from the governor and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, whose presence masked the absence of a confirmed administrator of Fema, the federal emergency management agency Noem and Trump have pledged to eliminate. Both of Texas’s Republican senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, also took part, as did Republican representative Chip Roy, who represents the area.
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During the roundtable, Trump asked one of his invited guests, Phil McGraw, the former daytime talkshow host known as Dr Phil, to share some “words of wisdom”.
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Soon after he opened the floor to questions from reporters, Trump called a correspondent for a local Texas broadcaster “very evil” for asking him what he would say to grieving families who say that their loved ones could still be alive if officials had warned them of the potential for catastrophic flooding. He then took questions from a series of correspondents for partisan outlets that support him, starting with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend.
The roundtable was notable for its resemblance at times to one of Trump’s campaign events, given that most of the participants he invited to speak were careful to praise him and that he insisted, again and again, that all of the Republican local, state and federal officials had acted admirably and any criticism of their efforts was despicable.
Farm worker dies of injuries sustained during immigration raid in California, union says
A farm worker “has died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday’s immigration enforcement action” in Ventura county, California, the United Farm Workers union said in a statement posted on social media on Friday afternoon.
Federal immigration officers, supported by national guard troops, raided two licensed, legal cannabis farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo on Thursday, arresting about 200 people they said were suspected of lacking legal status to live and work in the United States. Hundreds of protesters who gathered to oppose the raids were later attacked by the officers with chemical munitions.
Earlier on Friday, the union reported that “farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County”.
“Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones,” the union wrote.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union statement added. “There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately.”
Trump departs scene of deadly flooding in Texas, having praised local and state officials
Donald Trump and his wife Melania have now left Kerrville, Texas, after completing a roundtable discussion with officials involved in the recovery effort in Kerrville, Texas, which also featured what the president called some “words of wisdom” from Phil McGraw, the former daytime talkshow host known as Dr Phil whose pro-Trump cable network just declared bankruptcy.
The Trumps are now en route by helicopter back to Kelly Field airbase in San Antonio where they will board Air Force One.
According to the pool reporter traveling with them, the president and first lady walked along a rope line of dozens of emergency workers before they left Kerrville.
“This is as tough as we’ve seen,” Trump told the first responders. “The governor is doing a very good job, you’re doing a phenomenal job and we appreciate it,” he added.
Those remarks summed up the message that the president repeated again and again throughout the visit. Everyone, he said, had done a great job and no one in elected office could be blamed remotely for the scores of deaths from the catastrophic flooding.
Those talking points, and Trump’s unwillingness to even answer a question about why so many people in harm’s way had received no emergency warning in advance of the flood waters sweeping them away, oddly echoed the confident assertion a former president, George W Bush, made two decades ago in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, before its deadly toll was clear.
Speaking on 2 September 2005 in Mobile, Alabama, then president Bush effusively praised the response led by Fema director Michael Brown. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” Bush told him. “The Fema director” and his staff, the president added, as other officials burst into applause “are working 24 hours a day”.
Brown resigned 10 days later and Bush’s praise for the failed federal response was widely ridiculed, including by Will Ferrell in a segment of the comedian’s later one-man show about Bush’s failed presidency.
Trump calls reporter ‘evil’ for asking about lack of warnings ahead of flood
Donald Trump berated a CBS News Texas reporter who said that families of the dead are saying that their loved ones could have been saved had emergency warnings gone out before the flooding. “What do you say to those families?” the reporter asked the president.
“Well, I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances,” Trump said with a shrug of his shoulders. He then suggested that the severity of the flooding was unforeseeable and said he had only “admiration” for the local officials.
“Only a bad person would ask a question like that, to be honest with you. I don’t know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that,” Trump said. “I think this has been heroism. This has been incredible, the job you’ve all done.
“It’s easy to sit back and say, ‘Oh, what could’ve happened here”, Trump added in a mocking tone.
The president then turned to ask for a question from a more friendly corespondent, calling on Brian Glenn, who covers the White House for the pro-Trump network Real America’s Voice, and is the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Republican congresswoman from Georgia.
“Brian, go ahead please,” the president said.
Glenn’s question on who had first alerted Trump to the disaster was followed by a comment from the correspondent who said that as a native Texan he had received hundreds of messages thanking Trump for his response. Glenn mentioned that he had already told this to the president, referring to having made the same statement earlier this week during a televised cabinet meeting, but said he wanted to repeat it to make sure everyone in the room had heard it. “Thank you on behalf of Texas,” Glenn concluded.
“Thank you very much.” Trump said. “Well that’s a nice reporter.”
A short time later, another pro-Trump correspondent used the opportunity to further politicize the event by asking Trump to comment on the criticism of the disaster response from “ghouls on the left like Jasmine Crockett”, in reference to the Texas congresswoman who has recently been leading Republican senator John Cornyn in polls ahead of his race for re-election next year.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that the federal government’s emergency declaration of a major disaster was the fastest he was aware of, addressing a round table of local officials about flooding in Kerrville.
“Whenever there’s a disaster or catastrophe, the first thing we focus on is saving lives, prioritizing those lives every minute,” Abbott said, “Every hour counts.”
Trumpcriticized the previous administration’s response to Hurricane Helene in his remarks while praising Fema’s current leadership. Notably, requests for federal assistance in western North Carolina have been denied under the Trump administration.
Abbott cited the response by the Coast Guard in Texas, “literally saving lives right and left”. Abbott said he was committed to long-term recovery for the community. “We’re here for the long run, to maintain our operations to search and find everybody that we can, as well as ensure that we’re going to rebuild this community … not just to rebuild, but to rebuild in a better way.
He noted that the Texas legislature would reconvene in 10 days.
In rare public comments, First Lady Melania Trump expressed her sympathy with flood victims at a round table in Kerrville, Texas.
“All parents lost beautiful young souls. Sympathy from all of us to the community, to everybody who lost a loved one. We are grieving with you. Our nation is grieving with you. We just met with the wonderful families. We pray with them. We hug. We hold hands. They share the stories.”
Melania Trump said she was there to honor lost lives.
“And I will be back. I promise to them. I just pray for them and am giving them my strength and love.”
Trump likens flooding to ‘giant wave … best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf’
Donald Trump praised law enforcement officers and first responders to deadly flooding in Texas while holding a roundtable discussion in Kerrville with administration leaders and local officials.
“Every American should be inspired by what has taken place,” Trump said. The president said he had spent time speaking with people in the community who have been affected by the flooding.
“All across the country, Americans hearts are shattered,” Trump said. “We’re filled with grief and devastation, the loss of life, and unfortunately, they’re still looking. They’re still looking. There’s a lot of missing children, possibly, mostly, we don’t know, but they’re still looking, and they’ll find everybody. But it’s not an easy thing.”
Trump likened the flooding to “a giant, giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf”.
Trump says he and first lady are in Texas to ‘express love and support’
“Well, this is a tough one … It’s hard to believe the devastation,” said Donald Trump said as a roundtable discussion about flooding began in Kerrville, Texas.
“Trees that are 100 years old just ripped out of the ground,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen a lot of bad ones. I’ve gone to a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tornadoes. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is a bad one.”
Trump is meeting with local officials and first responders, observing the damage which he said had “claimed at least 135, 140 lives,” so far.
“We just visited with incredible families that – I mean, look – they’ve been devastated. They lost their child or two children, and just hard to believe. I’ve never seen anything like a little narrow river that becomes a monster, and that’s what happened. But the first lady and I are here in Texas to express the love and support and the anguish of our entire nation in the aftermath of this horrific and deadly flood. Nobody has any idea how and why a thing like this could happen.”
Donald Trump is about to sit down for a round table discussing flood relief and recovery with first responders and local officials at the Happy State Bank Expo Hall in Kerrville.
Questions have arisen about the alert system employed by local safety officials and a slow federal response to the flooding. Fema records obtained by NBC News in Dallas investigative reporters show that Kerr county officials in Texas did not use Fema’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System to send warnings with safety instructions to all mobile phones in the affected area during critical hours on 4 July.
And bureaucratic hurdles created by a focus on cost-cutting appear to have kept some federal emergency responders from immediately deploying assets in the wake of the flood, CNN reported.
The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins and Texas senators Tex Cruz and John Cornyn spoke with officials in the hall while waiting for Trump and the first lady to arrive for the roundtable.
Before arriving at the hall, the presidential motorcade stopped at an area near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville near an overturned tractor trailer and downed trees. Damage appeared to be more extensive near the riverbank. Trump, his wife and Texas governor Greg Abbott took a briefing about flooding there from local officials.
Border czar: Ice don’t need probable cause to grab someone
White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News on Friday morning that Ice agents can ignore probable cause and profile people suspected of illegal migration based on their physical appearance.
A federal judge is expected to issue a ruling on Friday on a restraining order aimed at curbing immigration enforcement operations in southern California. Asked about constraints on the crackdown, Homan replied, “People need to understand, Ice officers and border patrol, they don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them and question them. Get our typical facts based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions …”
Homan has made a string of statements showing contempt for legal norms in immigration enforcement, at one point claiming that a judge’s order to prevent a deportation was invalid because planes were already in the air.
“Agents are trained what they need to detain somebody temporarily and question them is not probable cause, it’s reasonable suspicion,” he said. “We’re trained on that. Every agent gets fourth amendment training over and over again.”
First responders brief Trump in Kerr county
Donald Trump was greeted in Kerrville, Texas, by Governor Greg Abbott. The president is there to observe recovery efforts after deadly flooding in the area. It has been friendly territory to Republican presidents.
Kerr county is in Texas hill country, about 65 miles – an hour’s drive – north-west of San Antonio, in Republican congressman Chip Roy’s district. About 54,000 people live in the county, with a bit less than half living in the county seat of Kerrville. Republican voters outnumber Democrats about three to one in the county.
About a quarter of Kerr county residents are Latino. The median household income in the county was about $68,000 in 2023, according to US census figures.
The Kerrville Visitor’s Bureau has promoted the Guadalupe River as a tourist destination for hikers, kayakers and canoeists, with gallery space and restaurants along the riverbank. Kerrville has hosted a folk festival for more than 50 years as a major visitor draw.
Jeffrey Epstein case blowback from the right roils FBI, justice department leadership
A circular firing squad has reportedly formed inside the White House as administration officials react to fallout from rightwing supporters of conspiracy theories about the death of Jeffrey Epstein and officials’ handling of the investigation.
Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer, said on X that FBI deputy director Dan Bongino is clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel. Loomer is calling for Trump to fire Bondi over her handling of the case.
Follow-up reporting by Axios said Bondi and Patel confronted Bongino with a NewsNation article that said he and Patel would have released information about Epstein earlier, but were held back by the DoJ. Bongino denied leaking that idea and didn’t show up for work on Friday, leading some insiders to believe Bongino had quit. Administration officials say he remains at the FBI.
The dispute is over a surveillance video released in conjunction with a joint FBI-DoJ report that determined Epstein had not been keeping a client list for blackmail and had committed suicide as previous investigations had concluded. The 10-hour video from outside of Epstein’s cell was strongly touted by Bongino as proof no one had entered the room before he killed himself.
But the video was found to have a minute of missing footage. Administration officials attribute the missing minute to the recording system changing over to a new tape at midnight.
Trump has landed in Texas
Donald Trump and first lady Melania have arrived in Texas. Air Force One landed at Kelly Field air base in San Antonio, Texas, just before noon local time, according to a press pool report. Trump will now head to Kerrville to survey flood damage.
Zelenskyy hails ‘good signals’ from US and EU on weapons shipments
Update: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenkiy said on Friday that he had received “good signals” from the US and the European Union on weapons shipments.
In a video on X, he said: “We have received political signals at the highest level – good signals – including from the United States, from our European friends. According to all reports, aid shipments have been restored.”
Reuters earlier reported Zelenskiy had that the US has resumed military supplies. Zelenskiy also said his army leaders would work next week with US special envoy Keith Kellogg. Ukrainian media reported that Kellogg will arrive in Kyiv on Monday for a week-long visit.
‘A galaxy far, far away’… coming soon to a protest near you
Members and leaders of the progressive activist group Indivisible saw fans of the Disney+ series “Andor” at the massive No Kings protests in June. They carried posters referencing the show, and the group saw discussions about attending the protests on different fan sites.
Now, Indivisible is trying to explicitly reach fans of the show, an origin story of the Rebel Alliance that fights against the Empire, finding analogies between the show and the rising Trump resistance.
The group is running ads on Facebook, targeting Star Wars fans with a graphic of a protester carrying a “We have friends everywhere” sign, a line from the show. They’re also running podcast ads on a fan podcast. The ads invite people in the fandom to training sessions or to their local Indivisible group and are designed to boost name recognition of Indivisible among people who could be politically aligned but in places that aren’t explicitly political.
“Andor might be taking place in a galaxy far far away, but the connections to what’s happening in this country are inescapable,” an ad running on the podcast “Storm of Spoilers” says. “We’re seeing a steady march by a tyrannical regime against our communities and our rights.”
The overall money spent is not big – but it’s an experiment in reaching out to new demographics, a common theme on the left after the 2024 losses. In the past, the group has targeted Taylor Swift fans and people who read romance novels.
Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible and an Andor fan, said fans of the show are finding inspiration from it in this “moment of creeping authoritarianism”.
“Just like on the show, we want to help people move from personal frustration and occasional protest, to more sustained and inter-connected defiance – though unlike the show, obviously, our ‘rebellion’ isn’t one that involves violence,” Levin said. “At Indivisible, we’re experts on helping new people get involved in activism – and we literally have ‘friends everywhere,’ since there are 2,600+ local Indivisible groups around the country. So this feels like a natural fit.”
Missouri’s governor Mike Kehoe has signed the repeal of a law that guaranteed paid sick leave – just eight months after voters approved it.
Kehoe signed the repeal of a law on Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage.
The move marked a major victory for the state’s largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers’ rights advocates, who had spent years – and millions of dollars – building support for the successful ballot measure, which also granted inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage. The repeal will take effect on 28 August.
Kehoe, who also signed a package of tax breaks on Thursday, described the paid sick leave law as an onerous mandate that imposed burdensome record-keeping.
“Today, we are protecting the people who make Missouri work – families, job creators, and small business owners – by cutting taxes, rolling back overreach, and eliminating costly mandates,” Kehoe, a Republican, said in a statement carried by AP.
United Airlines tie-up with JetBlue raises anti-competition concerns
Senator Richard Blumenthal described a proposed partnership between United Airlines and JetBlue Airways as anti-competitive, questioning the CEOs of both companies about their records and plans in a letter seen on Friday by Reuters.
United is the second-largest airline by revenue and the fourth by passengers carried in 2024 in the United States. JetBlue is a low-cost competitor with about a quarter of United’s capacity. Shares of both firms were lower on the news of Blumenthal’s concerns.
JetBlue has been seeking partnerships for years and has been thwarted twice by competition rulings. JetBlue’s partnership with American Airlines ended in 2023 after a federal judge blocked it. JetBlue and Spirit broke off a planned $3.8bn merger last year after a US judge blocked the deal on anti-competition grounds.
In the letter to United CEO Scott Kirby and JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty, the Democratic senator asked about their “Blue Sky” agreement to share bookings across websites and points in each airline’s frequent flyer programs. Blumenthal expressed concern about any deal “that may harm full and fair airline competition and lead to fewer and more expensive options for travelers, particularly in the New York City area”.
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