ALCATRAZ AUDIT

An audit released Monday from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General stated the detention camp known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Everglades failed to comply with standards for environmental health and safety, medical care and simple detention standards.

Photos included in the report, made during an unannounced visit to the facility in January, showed 18-square-foot metal enclosures called “calming areas” used to confine detainees.

Critics of the detention center and efforts, previously calling the facility “inhumane,” were quick to call the findings “appalling.”

“Those responsible must be held accountable,” U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, said in a release. “This cannot happen again.”

When asked about the audit during a press conference Monday in Lakeland, DeSantis said he hadn’t read the report but defended the state’s immigration enforcement efforts.

“Some of this stuff is going to be characterized in a certain way, no matter what,” DeSantis said. “But I can tell you, when they set it up, their goal was not only to meet the federal standards, but to actually exceed the federal standards. That did require more resources.”

Alex Lanfranconi, a spokesman for DeSantis, issued a statement claiming Florida has taken action after the Biden Administration let “at least ten million illegal aliens entered our country.”

“The left-wing media wants to focus on a confinement area for violent criminal aliens who have proven they cannot remain peaceful while awaiting deportation,” Lanfranconi continued. “While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we’d make it even smaller if we could.”

TAKING SIDES ON AMENDMENTS

DeSantis on Monday evening came out against Amendment 1, which would increase the amount of money lawmakers can put into a key reserve fund. It increases the cap on the balance of the budget stabilization fund from 10 percent of the previous year’s general fund revenue to 25 percent.

In doing so he split with the Republican Party of Florida and GOP legislative leaders who backed the proposal.

“This is a foolish constitutional amendment proposal. We already have a maxed out rainy day fund and have run the largest surpluses in state history,” DeSantis posted on X. “Any additional revenue should be used for lower taxes, including assisting local governments with grants so that homestead properties can be exempt from local property tax. Surplus revenue could also be used to remove tolls once the property tax issue is settled. I recommend a NO vote.”

by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida