Officials in three New England states are searching for Mason Payne, a 23-year-old who led Massachusetts police on a high-speed chase, dragged a state trooper and then fled into Connecticut, according to the Shelton, Connecticut, Police Department. Shelton CT Police Department
(SHELTON, Conn. ) — The hunt is on for a Vermont man who led Massachusetts police on a high-speed chase, dragged a state trooper and then fled into Connecticut, according to the Shelton, Connecticut, Police Department.
On Tuesday afternoon, police in Dover, Vermont, said Mason Payne, 23, was involved in an armed domestic assault. Later that night at approximately 10 p.m., he was stopped in Holyoke, Massachusetts, by a state police trooper, officials said in a statement on Wednesday.
During the stop, Payne dragged the trooper several feet with his vehicle before fleeing. The pursuit ended for safety reasons, police said.
Payne, of Weathersfield, Vermont, was last seen driving an older model black Audi sedan, police said. Officials said the vehicle might “possibly” have temporary Vermont plates.
Payne is considered armed and dangerous and has made threats to harm law enforcement officers, according to police.
Anyone who sees Payne or his vehicle should not approach but instead call 911 and “provide as many details as possible,” officials said.
Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(KERR COUNTY, Texas) — The parents of children who were among the 27 killed at Camp Mystic on Texas’ Guadalupe River during the historic Fourth of July flash flooding that devastated the Hill Country region gave emotional testimony on Wednesday before a state legislative committee probing the disaster.
A coalition of Camp Mystic parents testified before the Texas Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee, which is considering reforms to increase safety at youth camps across the state.
Cici Williams Steward told the committee that her 8-year-old daughter, Cile Steward, is the only Camp Mystic camper still missing, and one of two flood victims that remain unaccounted for in the wake of the disaster.
“Three generations of women in my family went to Camp Mystic. This year, it was finally Cile’s turn. She was 8 years old, going for the very first time, her heart full of excitement to join the tradition of her mother, her aunt and her grandmother, her great aunt and five cousins,” Steward told the panel. “For Cile, camp meant adventure, memories, friendships, and lessons to carry for a lifetime. For me, it meant watching my child grow and learn, but always under the assurance that she would be safe.”
Steward added, “Joy and growth cannot exist without safety. Cile’s chance to experience camp only existed because I was ensured that her safety and the safety of all the young girls was paramount. I ask you, what could have been more important than that? But that assurance was betrayed. Obvious common-sense safety measures were absent, protocols that should have been in place were ignored. As a result, my daughter was stolen from us.
Sitting next to her husband, Steward said the agonizing experience of waiting for her daughter’s remains to be recovered has left her and her family in a “torture chamber of uncertainty.”
“Cile’s life ended, not because of an unavoidable act of nature, but because of preventable failures on just her fifth day of camp,” Steward said, breaking into tears.
Steward and the other parents who testified asked the committee to pass Senate Bill 1, a measure that will boost safety at campgrounds along the Guadalupe River, where Camp Mystic was devastated during the flood.
“Our children’s lives were cut short because the safeguards in place were not enough,” the Campaign for Camp Safety, a group that includes the Camp Mystic parents, said in a statement released this week ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “We are asking lawmakers to make sure no other family ever has to endure the pain we have lived with every day since July 4th.”
Proposed bill intended to bolster camp safety
Texas State Sen. Charles Perry said the senate bill will place “basic campground safety reforms” on campgrounds, requiring them to have emergency plans on file with the county, prevent cabins from being constructed in flood plains, force camps to equip cabins with safety roof-top ladders and radios and require them to have at least two separate internet connections.
Perry said that had Senate Bill 1 — which will be renamed the “Heaven 27 Camp Safety Act” — been in existence during the flood, “I have no doubt that some lives, if not all lives, would have been saved on the camp front.”
The parents testifying on Wednesday were expected to make additional suggestions on how to improve camp safety along the Guadalupe River. In its statement, the group said it wants lawmakers to require campgrounds in a 100-year floodplain like Camp Mystic to equip cabins with emergency rooftop ladders and develop flash flood evacuation plans.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that a camp like Mystic wouldn’t have a detailed emergency procedure in place. When action was finally taken, it was too little, too late,” Michael McCown, whose 7-year-old daughter, Linnie McCown, died in the flooding. We did not send Linnie to a war zone. We sent her to camp. We trusted she would be safe. No parent should ever again face what we are living through now.”
‘She not only wan’t safe, she died’
Carrie Hanna described her 8-year-old daughter, Hadley, as a “hilarious, kind, caring, silly, loving little girl who always wanted to help others.”
“I told her camp was the safest place she could be, and she would make new friends and learn new things,” Hanna said. “I lied to her. She not only wasn’t safe, she died.”
Hanna said her daughter died “because there was no plan, because there was no backup system or sirens, because the sweet 18- and 19-year-old counselors did not have the training they needed.”
“Instead, they were told to stay in place, a rule that proved to be fatal,” Hanna said.
Wiping away tears, Clark Baker held up a photo of his 8-year-old daughter, Mary Grace Baker, holding up a fish she had caught.
“This picture you’re seeing was my last living memory of my daughter,” Baker said.
‘I sit before you a broken man’
Brandt Dillon, whose 8-year-old daughter, Lucy, was killed, pleaded with the committee to not allow Senate Bill 1 to be “watered down” before it is passed.
“When Lucy left for camp, it was the very first time she ever slept away from us,” Dillon said. “We entrusted her care to the camp operator and never for a moment did we believe she would be returned in a casket.”
He called his daughter his “best friend, my greatest contribution to society,” and told the committee, “Today I sit before you a broken man.”
“I will never forget the emotionless call that she was simply unaccounted for,” Dillon recalled. “We must make sure that when parents entrust their children to camps that they can have confidence that facilities are safe, operators are prepared and emergency plans are sufficient and executable. And, I’ll add, enforced as well.”
Ryan DeWitt told the committee that he dropped off two daughters at Camp Mystic and only one came home alive. In his testimony, DeWitt recalled his final goodbye with his younger daughter, 9-year-old Molly.
“She walked up to me. I was on one knee. She gave me a big hug. She pulled back. She grabbed me by both arms and she looked me directly in the eye, and no less than ten times with eye contact I had never experienced from this little girl, she said, ‘I love you, dad. I love you, dad. I love you, dad,” DeWitt said.
The heartbreaking testimony moved members of the committee to tears.
“I want you to know, you’re being heard,” a tearful state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst told the parents who testified. “You’re impacting lives.”
Camp Mystic, one of 19 youth summer camps on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, was devastated on July 4 when torrential rains fell over a short amount of time, causing the river to overflow in the early morning hours of July 4, trapping many campers in their cabins. Officials in hard-hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, said that more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.
At least 138 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including 117 in Kerr County, officials said.
During an Aug. 1 hearing of the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, the Kerr County emergency management director conceded that he was sick and asleep as the water rose to historic levels on the Guadalupe River.
Other Kerr County officials testified that an inadequate flash-flood warning system upstream contributed to the disaster.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly testified that in the aftermath of the flooding, the county commissioned an independent hydrology study that confirmed the July weather event was a 1,000-year flood.
“By the time flooding became visible downstream, upstream communities, including multiple youth camps, were already underwater,” Kelly said.
When committee members asked Kelly why an evacuation order was not issued, he said, “It was too late.”
ABC News’ Jeffrey Cook contributed to this report.
(NEW ORLEANS) — An inmate who was mistakenly released from a New Orleans jail has been captured following a nearly monthlong manhunt, authorities announced Wednesday.
Khalil Bryan, 30, was released from the Orleans Justice Center on July 25 due to a “human failure” that led to two deputies being fired, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office.
He was “safely apprehended” in Texas after an anonymous tip led to “critical information on his whereabouts,” the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
“We are grateful to the community member who stepped forward through Crimestoppers to provide the information that ultimately led to Mr. Bryan’s arrest,” Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said in a statement. “This shows the power of community partnership in keeping our city safe.”
Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans said the tip was “immediately processed by our liaisons with the US Marshals Gulf State Violent Offender Task Force and through their network with partnering agencies” and Bryan was arrested Wednesday morning.
Crimestoppers had been offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to his capture.
Bryan will be transported back to New Orleans to face pending charges, the sheriff’s office said.
At the time of his mistaken release, Bryan was being held on charges including possession of stolen property, drug paraphernalia and resisting an officer, according to the New Orleans Police Department. He also has an active warrant for aggravated assault with a firearm, domestic abuse, child endangerment and home invasion, it said.
Bryan was erroneously released when he was confused with another inmate with the same last name during the jail’s overnight release process and his identity was not properly verified, according to the sheriff’s office. The human error was “compounded by inadequate protocol adherence,” it said.
Two deputies were subsequently terminated for a “severe breach of duty and process,” the sheriff’s office said. Five staff members were also suspended “due to procedural failures and negligence” during the identity verification process, it said.
The sheriff’s office said it is further implementing changes, including additional training on the release process and a mandatory review of all inmate releases by a supervisor, in response to the incident.
“The people of New Orleans deserve a secure and accountable jail system,” Hutson said Wednesday. “While this erroneous release happened due to human failure, we have held those responsible accountable and we have taken responsibility and put safeguards in place.”
The Orleans Justice Center is the same jail where 10 inmates escaped in May. One remains on the lam.
Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has denied the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand jury material from Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal case.
The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Stock image of police lights. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The husband of a missing California woman who was found dead in the Angeles National Forest has fled to Peru, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
Sheylla Cabrera, 33, was reported missing on Aug. 12, according to police. During the subsequent investigation, investigators say they discovered video surveillance appearing to show her husband, 36-year-old Jossimar Cabrera, dragging something in a large piece of material from the apartment complex where the two lived with their three sons.
Authorities say they’re obtaining the “necessary documents to secure his return.” The case will be referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for criminal charges against Jossimar Cabrera.
Investigators say they believe foul play may have been involved in Sheylla Cabrera’s disappearance. Investigative teams had been searching large areas of the Angeles National Forest, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators also worked with the Mexican and Peruvian general consulates with alerts for the husband. Investigators say they were informed he had already fled the United States.
Cabrera’s three children, who were initially believed to be also missing, were found safe and taken into protective custody in Peru on Saturday, according to the sheriff’s department.
The Montrose Mountain Search and Rescue Team reported finding an object similar to the material that was “seen being taken away by the person of interest over the side of an embankment” in the Angeles National Forest on Saturday, according to the sheriff’s department.
Investigators responded to the scene and Sheylla Cabrera’s body was discovered.
The official cause of her death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(KERR COUNTY, Texas) — The parents of children who were among the 27 killed at Camp Mystic on Texas’ Guadalupe River during the historic Fourth of July flash flooding that devastated the Hill Country region are scheduled to testify on Wednesday before a state legislative committee probing the disaster.
A coalition of Camp Mystic parents are slated to testify before the Texas Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee which is considering reforms to increase safety at youth camps across the state.
“Our children’s lives were cut short because the safeguards in place were not enough,” the Campaign for Camp Safety, a group that includes the Camp Mystic parents, said in a statement released this week ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “We are asking lawmakers to make sure no other family ever has to endure the pain we have lived with every day since July 4th.”
The parents testifying on Wednesday are expected to make suggestions on how to improve camp safety along the Guadalupe River. In its statement, the group said they want lawmakers to require campgrounds in a 100-year floodplain like Camp Mystic to equip cabins with emergency rooftop ladders and develop flash flood evacuation plans.
“The families emphasized that while they continue to grieve, they are committed to turning their pain into meaningful and urgent change for all kids, on behalf of their angels they now refer to as ‘Heaven’s 27,'” the Campaign for Camp Safety said in its statement.
Camp Mystic, one of 19 youth summer camps on the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas, was devastated on July 4 when torrential rains fell over a short amount of time, causing the river to overflow in the early morning hours of July 4, trapping many campers in their cabins. Officials in hard-hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, said that more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.
At least 130 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including 117 in Kerr County, officials said.
During an Aug. 1 hearing of the Texas House and Senate Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding, the Kerr County emergency management director conceded that he was sick and asleep as the water rose to historic levels on the Guadalupe River.
Other Kerr County officials testified that an inadequate flash-flood warning system upstream contributed to the disaster.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly testified that in the aftermath of the flooding, the county commissioned an independent hydrology study that confirmed the July weather event was a 1,000-year flood.
“By the time flooding became visible downstream, upstream communities, including multiple youth camps, were already under water,” Kelly said.
When committee members asked Kelly why an evacuation order was not issued, he said, “It was too late.”
In this image released by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the sign for Staunton State Park is shown in Colorado./Colorado Parks and Wildlife
(DENVER) —A manhunt entered its second day on Wednesday for a suspect who stabbed a ranger at Staunton State Park in Colorado in what is now believed to be a targeted attack, according to police.
The stabbing unfolded around noon local time in the nearly 4,000-acre park southwest of Denver, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have reason to believe this was a targeted attack and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
A shelter-in-place order for residents near Staunton State Park has been lifted, authorities.
The victim, a seasonal Colorado Parks and Wildlife ranger, was taken by emergency aircraft to a hospital, where he underwent surgery, the sheriff’s office said. The ranger was listed in serious condition on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The suspect fled on foot after stabbing the ranger.
A motive for the stabbing remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office did not disclose why they believe the stabbing was targeted.
The suspect’s name has not been released.
Aerial footage on Tuesday from Denver ABC affiliate KMGH showed heavily armed officers searching the park.
Due to the ongoing search for the suspect, Staunton State Park was closed on to the public on Tuesday and police evacuated visitors from inside the park, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said.
(NEW YORK) –A student was killed in a stabbing at a Phoenix high school on Tuesday in what school officials called a “senseless tragedy.”
The incident occurred at Maryvale High School, officials said. Officers responded to the school around 11 a.m. to a call for a stabbing, Phoenix police said.
Phoenix Commander David Saflar said the incident “started off with a fight between two students, and escalated.”
School staff notified the on-campus school safety officer, who detained one of the people involved, according to Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano.
Two students were transported to an area hospital, including one with life-threatening injuries, police said. A male student has since died, officials said.
“What happened today at Maryvale is truly a tragedy,” Saflar said at a press briefing Tuesday.
No additional suspects are being sought, he said.
The Phoenix Police Department is investigating the incident. No further details are being released at this time, said police, who have not provided any details on the weapon used in the stabbing or the students involved.
Authorities urged anyone with information, including any cellphone footage, to reach out to police.
Phoenix Union High School District Superintendent Thea Andrade said the district is cooperating fully with the investigation.
“Maryvale is a beautiful, resilient community and I am shocked and deeply saddened by what took place here today,” Andrade said at the press briefing, calling the incident a “senseless tragedy.”
The school will be on a modified schedule on Wednesday to provide “extensive emotional support and counseling to our students and to our staff,” Andrade said.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego thanked the first responders and police and said more information will be released as it becomes available.
“Tomorrow, it will be a hard moment to drop a kid off at school, and so to the parents out there, know that we are working as hard as we can to make sure that schools are as safe as possible,” Gallego said at the briefing.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne called the deadly stabbing a “terrible tragedy.”
“Schools must be safe places,” Horne said in a statement. “This terrible incident reinforces my commitment to doing everything possible to make schools safe.”
(NEW YORK) — Lyle and Erik Menendez are heading to their long-awaited parole hearing, marking a huge step forward in their push to be released after 35 years behind bars.
Erik Menendez’s parole hearing is set for Thursday and Lyle Menendez’s hearing will be on Friday. After the hearings conclude, the parole board will determine whether the brothers are suitable for parole.
The final decision on parole will then go to California Gov. Gavin Newsom to approve, deny or modify the decision, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. If granted parole, they’d be eligible for release immediately after the decision is finalized, which takes about five months, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. If parole is denied, the denial could be for either three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, according to the department.
“Newsom can also exercise his clemency power to pardon or release the Menendez brothers at any time,” the DA’s office said.
Here’s what you need to know about the case:
The brothers’ push for release Lyle Menendez, now 57, and Erik Menendez, now 54, were initially sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.
Lyle Menendez was 21 and Erik Menendez was 18 at the time of the crime. They said they committed the murders in self-defense after years of abuse by their father.
LA County DA Nathan Hochman has fought against their release, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense part of a litany of “lies.” But the brothers have the support of over 20 family members in their efforts to be freed.
A new sentence This May, Judge Michael Jesic resentenced Erik and Lyle Menendez to 50 years to life in prison, which follows the recommendation made in October by then-LA County DA George Gascón. This new sentence makes them immediately eligible for parole.
The judge noted he was moved by the supportive letters from prison guards and was amazed by the work the brothers had accomplished to better the lives of their fellow inmates.
The brothers, who watched the resentencing hearing from prison, gave their own statements to the judge, admitting their guilt.
“I killed my mom and dad,” Lyle Menendez told Jesic. “I give no excuses.”
Lyle Menendez admitted to committing perjury by lying in court in the ’90s and he apologized to his family for years of lies and the shock and grief of the crimes.
Erik Menendez also admitted to lying for years and apologized.
“I committed an atrocious act,” he told the judge. “… No justification for what I did.”
Erik Menendez added that he’s “come a long way on this path” of redemption and said, “I will not stop trying to make a difference.”
Bid for a new trial Meanwhile, the brothers are pursing another path separate from the parole process.
In 2023, they submitted a habeas corpus petition to try to get another trial based on new evidence not originally presented in court.
The petition presents two pieces of new evidence. One is allegations from a former member of the boy band Menudo, who revealed in the 2023 docuseries “Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” that he was raped by Jose Menendez. The second is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse; the cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t unearthed until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney.
This month, Hochman filed a response to the habeas corpus petition, stating that he “concluded that this petition does not come close to meeting the factual or legal standard to warrant a new trial.”
“The central defense of the Menendez brothers at trial has always been self-defense, not sexual abuse. The jury rejected this self-defense defense in finding them guilty of the horrific murders they perpetrated; five different appellate state and federal courts have affirmed those convictions, and nothing in the so-called ‘new’ evidence challenges any of those determinations,” Hochman said in a statement. “Our opposition to this ‘Hail Mary’ effort to obtain a new trial over 30 years later makes clear that justice, the facts, and the law demand the convictions stand.”
(NEW YORK) — A group of Senate and House Democrats is pushing officials at the Department of Homeland Security for more information about the use of the immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
In a letter sent late Tuesday to the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and FEMA, the lawmakers expressed concern that the Trump administration’s decision to use what lawmakers called a “novel state-run immigration detention model” could violate federal law and make the federal government less accountable for the conditions at immigrant detention centers.
The letter comes as the Trump administration has embraced the model of using state-run facilities — as opposed to federal or private ones — to detain noncitizens during immigration proceedings, including using a shuttered state prison as an additional site in Florida, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” and expanding ICE detention space in an Indiana correctional facility dubbed the “Speedway Slammer” and in a Nebraska facility to be called “Cornhusker Clink.”
“Experts worry this novel state-run immigration detention model will allow Florida to create an ‘independent, unaccountable detention system’ that runs parallel to the federal detention system,” the group of eight senators and 57 representatives wrote.
The “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility has been the subject of intense political and legal scrutiny since it was rapidly constructed on the site of a rarely used airstrip in the Florida Everglades in June. The temporary detention center — which currently can house 3,000 migrants awaiting deportation — was toured by President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in early July.
“They have a lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops that are in the form of alligators. You don’t have to pay them so much.” Trump said while touring the facility. “I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long.”
In the letter, spearheaded by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the lawmakers asked the Department of Homeland Security to provide more information about the facility by Sept. 3. They asked the Trump administration to identify the legal authority that allows Florida to run the facility, confirm the facility meets federal standards for the treatment of detainees, and outline the criteria used by DHS to reimburse Florida for the facility.
“Brushing aside concerns from human rights watchdogs, environmentalist groups, and Tribal nations, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has greenlit the construction of this expansive detention facility that may violate detained individuals’ human rights, jeopardize public and environmental health, and violate federal law. We ask that DHS promptly provide critical information for the American public to better understand this detention plan,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers also requested additional information about legal access for detainees at the facility and the environmental impact of the site — issues that have been at the center of two federal lawsuits challenging the facility. A federal judge has temporarily paused further construction at the site over environmental concerns, and a lawsuit over legal access was partially dismissed after the Trump administration established a nearby immigration court to handle issues stemming from Alligator Alcatraz.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the letter. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has previously said the facility complies with federal detention standards.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has lauded “Alligator Alcatraz” as an efficient way for Florida to work with the Trump administration to carry out deportations, and has encouraged other states to do the same.
“I know that the administration has called on other states to follow suit and expand this type of capacity, and I would just reiterate that call. I think it’s important. I think it will make a difference,” DeSantis said at a press conference at the site in July. “The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens.”
Since “Alligator Alcatraz” opened in July, immigration advocates have been pushing for more information about the facility, arguing that the custodial and operational details were initially kept murky to prevent oversight. According to documents released in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the facility, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Florida State Guard — along with private contractors — are running the site under a 287(g) agreement with the federal government.
“While the aliens are in the physical custody of the State, they are for certain legal purposes treated as in the custody of the federal government,” an attorney with the Department of Justice wrote in a court filing earlier this month.
According to H. Marissa Montes, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, the model used by Alligator Alcatraz allows the federal government to outsource detention facilities to eager states and private contractors. While the federal government has long relied on county jails and for-profit prison companies to house detainees, facilities like “Alligator Alcatraz” expand the scale of individual states’ involvement in federal immigration proceedings, Montes said.
“Given that DHS is working directly with the Florida state government on a detention facility with alarming implications, DHS should ensure transparency and accountability surrounding the facility’s financing operations,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.
With Trump vowing to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history, the use of facilities like “Alligator Alcatraz” contributes to a deterrent effect that encourages self-deportation, according to Montes, who runs Loyola’s Immigrant Justice Clinic.
“We’ve got an increased number of people who come in seeking to self-deport because they’d rather self-deport in a way that’s dignified, right, than at the hands of the federal government,” Montes said.
