President Donald Trump's authorization of National Guard troops to serve as immigration judges in Florida has been met with praise and backlash as the administration looks to speed up the process of deporting illegal migrants.
On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared with Trump as the duo toured a newly renovated detention center for illegal aliens nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz," due to its isolated location within the Florida Everglades. The state is in the midst of converting the 17,000-acre Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport just west of Miami into a massive holding facility.
Trump was asked by the Washington Examiner if he would support DeSantis' idea of using National Guard troops to serve as immigration judges as a way of expediting the process of deportation.
"Yes, he has my approval," Trump promptly told the outlet. "He didn't even have to ask me. He has my approval," the president added.
DeSantis said the purpose of using the National Guard in such a manner is to cut through the "bureaucracy" of deportation.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who was a key person in the rapid development of the holding center, called it a "one-stop shop for immigration enforcement," adding, "Come in, get your 'process,' and fly out."
On Wednesday, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell said roughly 70 Florida National Guard troops were already conducting base security at the Everglades detention center.
There are nine Judge Advocate General officers in Florida's National Guard who could be trained in as little as six weeks to be immigration officers, according to the state's plan for immigration. A spokesperson for the National Guard told the Miami Herald it has not received the official approval to initiate training for the JAG officers but was "standing by to provide support to this mission as needed and directed by Gov. DeSantis."
But while Trump has the support of most Republicans for the order, Democrats are crying foul on both the use of the National Guard and the holding center based in the Everglades. Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigration Coalition decried the president's maneuver.
"National Guard members are being deputized to serve as immigration judges in this Everglades detention camp," Kennedy wrote in a statement on X. "This is intended to strip due process from those detained there."
On Wednesday, House Democrats sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons demanding the "callously" named Alligator Alcatraz be shuttered immediately. The letter also labeled the detention center "deliberately cruel."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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