Originally published at: How Florida’s Plan for Immigration Judges at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ May Violate Constitutional Rights
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation. Seeking to expand Florida’s role in federal immigration enforcement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2025 submitted the state’s Immigration Enforcement Operations Plan to the Trump administration. The plan, endorsed by President Donald Trump, says all…
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How Florida’s Plan for Immigration Judges at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ May Violate Constitutional Rights
Constitutional rights are whatever Trump says they are. With an able assist from SCOTUS.
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MAGA has never found a problem to which they can’t half-ass a solution that violates the Constitution, laws, regulations, and which will face legal challenges. It’s stunning (and a bit gratifying) to me that after more than a decade these fear drenched hate-goblins haven’t figured out that there are less contentious ways of getting their way.
Literally spending the money to actually staff immigration courts at a sufficient level would cost less and get them to their stated goals. But, doing that would require them to admit that they cannot do whatever they want, so we get another ham-handed policy (that Democrats will still somehow fail to use as an example of why the GOP doesn’t care about its base).
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There’s a thrill in flouting the laws in a way that trolls the libs AND achieves your policy goals. It’s a twofer.
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It’s part of an effort to, as the plan notes, “maintain state-led border security operations in the absence of federal support.”
DeSantis is securing Florida’s borders with Georgia and Alabama after the illegal entry by Tommy Tuberville. At least he acknowledges that the Trump administration is not providing adequate federal support to stem this existential invasion.
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Well, it’s part of the standard Republican playbook. Cause a problem, in this case, an overwhelming backup of immigration cases due to “staff reductions” in the folks who deal with this kind of thing. Congress, as usual, can’t and won’t do anything about it. So ambitious men step in with blatantly illegal, yet ideologically appealing, “solutions.” It establishes “facts on the ground” and voila! Now it’s standard practice, and thus “legal.”
Thus disrespect for the law, and despotic powers gain acceptability with the public.
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One day Trump will “deport”, er…exile…a U.S. citizen for an act of public defiance, for a loud, prominent protest of some policy. There’s always a nugget of truth to a Trump threat, a window into his thinking. If he spouts off a threat everyone scoffs at, he inevitably doubles down, seeking a way to say “Oh yeah? Well, watch this!!”
And, of course, SCOTUS will just have to go along with it. They can’t tell a President he’s limited in his options as to dealing with a national security threat, right?
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In his life, Donnie has taken all sorts of oaths that he never had or has any intention of respecting, adhering to, or observing.
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If “immigration enforcement — including deciding whether someone is deported — is fundamentally a civilian enforcement function,” then “The Fifth Amendment guarantees [of] due process rights to all persons on U.S. soil, regardless of immigration status” does not apply to those cases. The Fifth Amendment guarantees only apply to a criminal case. It’s the 14th Amendment that guarantees due process in civil cases.
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I remember in HS 50 years ago, they would force us to stand up and recite the “Pledge of Allegiance”
I would stand up, put my hand over my heart and kept looking down, reading whatever it was I was reading. Ignoring the whole proceeding as best I could. Such BS.
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This morning’s context.
Current temp at the house at 9:30am: 93 degrees and humid. I’m just about 60 miles northwest of Alligator Auschwitz. We have the same weather.
I just skimmed the pool of overnight insects. 10 minutes and I had to put on a dry shirt.
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A cool AM in Jersey, only 83, and sticky, so far 
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No Constitutional Amendment guarantees anything. The only thing guaranteed is your right to file a lawsuit alleging you’ve been deprived of a Constitutional right. If our rights were guaranteed we’d have no need for lawyers or courts to intervene on our behalf, sorting out whether our claim a right was violated was valid. We’re not guaranteed a damn thing but billable hours. And Trump is going to drive up those billables every opportunity he can find.
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Yo dude, I feel your pain. “It’s not the temperature it’s the____________.” (can you fill in the blank, I have faith in you that you can)
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The military should not police civilians.
If Republicans go down this path, then the Defense Department budget needs to be cut in half.
Because waste, fraud and abuse…
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There will be active duty DoD personnel on street corners in a dozen major cities, in Blue States, before the year expires.
On missions, not window shopping.
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Fort Myers. Moved here for family reasons.
And it’s the dewpoint. When water no longer evaporates, there is no evaporative cooling.
I picked a small ringneck snake from the pool this morning. First world problems, eh?
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75º and 39% humidity, heading to a forecast high of 95º and 15% humidity.
I don’t remember that in HS (graduated 61 years ago) but definitely in grade school. Even then I skipped the “under god” part.
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If you ever need a bit of spare change I hear Florida is hiring concentration camp workers.
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