With deportation flights now taking off from Alligator Alcatraz, an Orlando-based attorney tells WESH 2 she is relieved her client, a DACA recipient from Mexico, is no longer detained in the facility the state constructed at the airport in the Florida Everglades. “I’m just happy that he’s out and we have access to him now,” attorney Josephine Arroyo said.Her client was one of the first ICE detainees to be transported from the Orange County jail to Alligator Alcatraz. The 36-year-old man who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico as a child in 2001 ended up in ICE custody following an arrest out of Seminole County after he missed a court date for driving with a suspended license, Arroyo said.”So that was our biggest concern at Alligator Alcatraz are the due process violations that there’s a lack of access for those detainees to meet with their (attorneys),” Arroyo said.The DACA recipient was detained at Alligator Alcatraz on July 5. He was there for nearly two weeks until Arroyo said he was transferred to the Glades County Jail on July 18.”One of the most interesting things that, that he shared with us was that he had been visited by an ICE official who confirmed to him that he did not have a deportation order,” Arroyo said.Arroyo was finally able to meet with him face-to-face at the jail. “We were able to have a private conversation with him,” she said, “and then also he was very thrilled and happy because he was able to have virtual visitation with his family.”On Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials held a news conference to announce that the runway at Alligator Alcatraz is now operating a pathway toward removal from this country.”The whole purpose is to make this into a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens,” DeSantis said.ICE ERO Field Director Garrett Ripa said two to three flights already took off this week, resulting in the removal of “up to 100 individuals” who were illegally in the United States.The state officials who joined the governor urged immigrants without legal status in Florida to take up the Trump administration’s offer to self-deport. “Any illegal immigrant listening to my voice right now, self-deport,” Florida’s new Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said. “Use the app. We will get you home. Do not come here because you will be removed.”The state’s immigration enforcement director, Larry Keefe, said there will be even more immigration enforcement across the state as more sheriff’s deputies and FDLE agents have received credentials from the federal government. “We have more than doubled our capability and capacity to effect arrest,” Keefe said, adding, “There will be a surge of arrests.” Orange County’s Democratic lawmakers continue speaking out against the arrest of immigrants without criminal records and the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz. “What’s happening right now is cruel and inhumane,” State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-17) said. “We have seen that many individuals have self-deported because they’ve made life so terrible here in the state of Florida.”They are also protesting the nearly half a billion-dollar price tag to operate Alligator Alcatraz.”Whether its state or Federal, it is taxpayer money paying for facility that is environmentally damaging and has deep humanitarian concerns,” State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orange County) said.DeSantis said he is hopeful the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will ramp up the deportation flights out of the Everglades in the coming days. “I want it to be where illegals are here, there’s aggressive processing and an aggressive deportation schedule,” DeSantis said. “That’s what you’re starting to see occur here.”The governor also said Florida will continue leading the way in carrying out President Trump’s promise to mass deport and stop illegal immigration.“So, this is our chance to finally solve this problem once and for all,” he said.As for the DACA recipient who spent nearly two weeks at Alligator Alcatraz, his attorney said she’s still trying to secure his release and bring him home to his brother and children.“So, our only other remedy at this point would be a petition for writ of habeas corpus,” Arroyo said, “and so that’s what we plan to do if, if they do not release him or do not respond.”

CENTRAL FLORIDA, USA —

With deportation flights now taking off from Alligator Alcatraz, an Orlando-based attorney tells WESH 2 she is relieved her client, a DACA recipient from Mexico, is no longer detained in the facility the state constructed at the airport in the Florida Everglades.

“I’m just happy that he’s out and we have access to him now,” attorney Josephine Arroyo said.

Her client was one of the first ICE detainees to be transported from the Orange County jail to Alligator Alcatraz.

The 36-year-old man who arrived in the U.S. from Mexico as a child in 2001 ended up in ICE custody following an arrest out of Seminole County after he missed a court date for driving with a suspended license, Arroyo said.

“So that was our biggest concern at Alligator Alcatraz are the due process violations that there’s a lack of access for those detainees to meet with their (attorneys),” Arroyo said.

The DACA recipient was detained at Alligator Alcatraz on July 5. He was there for nearly two weeks until Arroyo said he was transferred to the Glades County Jail on July 18.

“One of the most interesting things that, that he shared with us was that he had been visited by an ICE official who confirmed to him that he did not have a deportation order,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo was finally able to meet with him face-to-face at the jail.

“We were able to have a private conversation with him,” she said, “and then also he was very thrilled and happy because he was able to have virtual visitation with his family.”

On Friday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials held a news conference to announce that the runway at Alligator Alcatraz is now operating a pathway toward removal from this country.

“The whole purpose is to make this into a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens,” DeSantis said.

ICE ERO Field Director Garrett Ripa said two to three flights already took off this week, resulting in the removal of “up to 100 individuals” who were illegally in the United States.

The state officials who joined the governor urged immigrants without legal status in Florida to take up the Trump administration’s offer to self-deport.

“Any illegal immigrant listening to my voice right now, self-deport,” Florida’s new Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said. “Use the app. We will get you home. Do not come here because you will be removed.”

The state’s immigration enforcement director, Larry Keefe, said there will be even more immigration enforcement across the state as more sheriff’s deputies and FDLE agents have received credentials from the federal government.

“We have more than doubled our capability and capacity to effect arrest,” Keefe said, adding, “There will be a surge of arrests.”

Orange County’s Democratic lawmakers continue speaking out against the arrest of immigrants without criminal records and the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz.

“What’s happening right now is cruel and inhumane,” State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-17) said. “We have seen that many individuals have self-deported because they’ve made life so terrible here in the state of Florida.”

They are also protesting the nearly half a billion-dollar price tag to operate Alligator Alcatraz.

“Whether its state or Federal, it is taxpayer money paying for facility that is environmentally damaging and has deep humanitarian concerns,” State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orange County) said.

DeSantis said he is hopeful the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will ramp up the deportation flights out of the Everglades in the coming days.

“I want it to be where illegals are here, there’s aggressive processing and an aggressive deportation schedule,” DeSantis said. “That’s what you’re starting to see occur here.”

The governor also said Florida will continue leading the way in carrying out President Trump’s promise to mass deport and stop illegal immigration.

“So, this is our chance to finally solve this problem once and for all,” he said.

As for the DACA recipient who spent nearly two weeks at Alligator Alcatraz, his attorney said she’s still trying to secure his release and bring him home to his brother and children.

“So, our only other remedy at this point would be a petition for writ of habeas corpus,” Arroyo said, “and so that’s what we plan to do if, if they do not release him or do not respond.”