(The Center Square) — President Donald Trump is visiting the first large-scale state-run deportation facility in the country in the Florida Everglades on Tuesday morning.

In addition to Florida having the most state agencies and law enforcement entities participating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and being the first state to launch a program to protect ICE officers, it’s also the first to build a massive deportation facility to support Trump’s deportation efforts.

The president will meet with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier who proposed the location and construction of the facility.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Immigration and Custom Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons and Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie will also be in attendance.

Two weeks ago, Uthmeier proposed that the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport be used to assist with ICE deportation efforts. The 30-square mile airport owned by Miami-Dade County is located roughly 60 miles east of Miami near the Everglades National Park. Its 10,000-foot-long asphalt runway is used for military training exercises and was intended to be part of Miami’s new airport before a public outcry halted construction in 1970.

“Florida’s been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE’s efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,” Uthmeier said. “The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one, as I call it Alligator Alcatraz.”

“It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he said. “If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.”

He said the facility would be ready within 30 to 60 days after construction, with the potential to house 1,000 criminal foreign nationals.

However, the first detainees are expected to arrive as early as Tuesday, and the site will be able to hold up to 3,000 at a time, Gov. DeSantis said.

In a preview with Fox News, DeSantis explained, “the state of Florida is all in on President Trump’s [mass deportation] mission.” In an effort to help federal agents with processing and staging removal operations, the state identified the airport as a base of operations.

“There needs to be more ability to intake, process and then deport,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got a massive runway where any of the federal agencies want to fly these people back to their home country, they can do it in a one stop shop.”

(The Center Square) – Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not getting out of jail for now.

The Monday ruling from federal Magistrate Barbara D. Holmes comes at the request of Garcia, who is facing federal charges of human smuggling. Garcia is concerned “based on purported conflicting statements by the government, specifically that it intends to remove Abrego to a third country upon his return to DHS custody following release in this case and that it would ensure Abrego is not removed before trial on the instant criminal charges,” Holmes said in the ruling.

Holmes previously said that Garcia should be released but acknowledged that he would likely remain in federal custody. In her ruling Monday, Holmes said she considered the “perceived conflicting positions taken by the government regarding whether it will deport Abrego pending final disposition of this case including the further review by the District Judge of the government’s request for pretrial detention.”

The ruling means Garcia will be held in federal custody until a July 16 hearing.

“He shall, to the extent practicable, be held separately from persons awaiting or serving sentences or being held in custody pending appeal and he shall be afforded a reasonable opportunity for private consultation with defense counsel,” Holmes said in her ruling.

Garcia was returned to the U.S. after being deported to El Salvador to stand trial on charges of “alien smuggling” and “conspiracy to commit alien smuggling.”

The smuggling charges stem from a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. Garcia was driving an SUV with eight passengers. One of the officers believed that he was smuggling them, remarking in a video of the traffic stop that he was “hauling these people for money.”

The Center Square) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s $115.1 billion budget and a tax relief package worth $1.3 billion in tax relief in a ceremony in Wildwood on Monday.

The second-term Republican governor put his signature on the budget which he says includes about $590 million in line-item vetoes.

“I think signing the budget underscores the fact that Florida is the best-managed state in these United States,” DeSantis said. “So going into this legislative session, our current fiscal year, which ends tonight, we are actually spending less this year than we were the previous fiscal year. How many places are spending less year over year? Not a lot.”

DeSantis said his priority is shifting to property tax reform and he urged Florida voters to hold their local leaders and lawmakers accountable as he seeks to have a ballot initiative on the November 2026 ballot to lower property taxes. 

The $115.1 billion budget passed by lawmakers just weeks before Tuesday’s deadline is $3.5 billion less this year’s outlay of $118.6 billion, a 3.2% cut. GOP legislative leaders needed 106 days, nearly double the normal 60-day legislative session, to find an accord on the state’s budget. 

Also included is $1.3 billion in tax relief and $830 million to pay off the state’s debt into the budget. 

The package includes the phaseout of the state’s business rent tax, with Florida being the only state to mandate such a levy.

“The Legislature has also done something that I’ve been asking for for many years, and that’s eliminating a tax that only Florida has of all 50 states, and that’s taxing business rent,” DeSantis said. “Not good for our economy. It’s not good for for business growth and so that tax is being sunsetted. And again, how many times do you hear governments eliminating a tax like normally, these taxes grow. So thanks for doing that. I think that that’s well intended.”

The amount of tax relief, $1.3 billion, is smaller than what was sought originally by House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, but is the largest recurring one in state history.

“Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature are running to the fight for meaningful, broad-based tax relief to keep more money in the pockets of the hard-working Floridians and local businesses who earn it,” said outgoing Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula. “Inflation has led to significant cost increases, impacting families and seniors. Cutting taxes on essentials helps keep Florida affordable. We know our current sales tax holidays are popular and highly utilized as families and seniors map out and plan for specific purchases.

“Creating a permanent tax holiday every August on clothing, shoes, school supplies, and personal computers expands our current holiday and creates a consistency that benefits both consumers and retailers.”

August will have a permanent sales tax holiday for school supplies and another one in the fall for fishing and hunting supplies. Lawmakers also removed sales tax from disaster preparedness supplies.

Previously, those sales holidays were done by lawmakers from year to year. 

The tax relief bill also allows local governments to reduce or repeal certain discretionary sales surtaxes with a two-thirds vote.