President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Saturday that a Florida judge’s order to temporarily shut down some of Alligator Alcatraz is “not going to stop” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, indicating that migrants apprehended by federal agents could be sent to other detention facilities.
“They’re not going to stop us doing what we’re doing. We’ll follow the judge’s order and we’ll litigate and we’ll appeal it. But [the] bottom line is, we’re going to continue to arrest public safety threats and national security threats every day across this country,” Homan said in an exclusive interview with NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network.
“If we have to send them to another facility. That’s what we’re going to do. That’s why the president has asked for 100,000 beds in the Big, Beautiful Bill. So, we’re going to build 100,000 beds, so we’re not going to have a lack of bed space,” the White House’s border czar told NewsNation’s correspondent Libbey Dean. “For every illegal alien we arrest. We need a bed. And that’s why the 100,000 beds is important. So we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, and these radical judges make these decisions, they may slow us up a bit, but they’re not going to stop us.”
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Obama, ruled late Thursday that Florida is barred from bringing in more migrants to Alligator Alcatraz and that parts of the facility be temporarily shut down.
Williams said the Sunshine State has to stop the facility’s expansion, the installation of additional lighting and remove all “generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project” within two months.
Florida appealed the decision Friday morning.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) rebuffed Williams’ order, arguing the judge was not “going to give us a fair shake.”
“This was preordained, very much an activist judge that is trying to do policy from the bench,” the Florida governor said on Friday at an event in Panama City.
“This is not going to deter us,” DeSantis added. “We’re going to continue working on the deportations, advancing that mission.”
Homan said the administration follows “every judge’s order while we appeal it and litigate it.”
“So, it will be shut down in the interim?” Dean asked Homan.
“I don’t think that decision’s been made yet. We’re, we’re reviewing. Really, it’s a DOJ [Justice Department] question. We’re reviewing the order, and we’ll see where we go from there,” Homan said on Saturday. “We’re not going to defy a court. We just take it to a higher level and appeal it.”
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