Trump revokes Kamala Harris’ Secret Service detail extended by Biden

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump touring the new “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center in Florida‘s Everglades on Tuesday.

The Trump administration is turning the remote Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport into a facility that officials say will eventually hold up to 5,000 people. Officials say operations will start on Tuesday. The facility is part of Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations by expanding detention capacity. The president has already sent migrants to Guantánamo Bay and the mega-prison in El Salvador.

Asked by ABC News’ Mary Bruce if the center could be a new standard for immigration facilities in the U.S. despite criticism for its harsh conditions, Trump said, “It can be.”

“I mean, you don’t always have land so beautiful and so secure. 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 but I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long. It will keep people where they’re supposed to be. This is a very important thing,” he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s visit would be a chance for the president to tout the funding for more detention facilities and efforts to enact Trump’s mass deportation policy that are in his megabill that the Senate could vote on Tuesday before sending to the House before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

“I think his trip to this detention facility actually underscores the need to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill because we need more detention facilities across the country,” Leavitt said.

A source familiar with the planning tells ABC it will cost Florida $450 million a year, and officials say some of that money will be reimbursed from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.

Leavitt described the facility’s remote location in her briefing on Monday.

“There’s only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight,” she said. “It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain. The facility will have up to 5,000 beds to house, process and deport criminal illegal aliens.”

“This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history,” Leavitt added.

When asked about the remote and dangerous location, Leavitt said that it was a feature of the facility to help prevent detainees from escaping.

“Well look, when you have illegal murderers and rapists and heinous criminals in a detention facility surrounded by alligators, yes, I do think that’s a deterrent for them to try to escape,” she said. “We do know that some of these illegal criminals have escaped from other detention facilities, like one in New Jersey, which I know was recently reported on. So, of course, we want to keep the American people safe, and we want to remove these public safety threats from our streets, and we want to effectively detain them as best as we can.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier posted on X that the facility is a “one stop shop” to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda, claiming the location saves money on security since it’s surrounded by dangerous animals.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” Uthmeier posted.

Among officials who will join Trump at the facility are Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Congressman Byron Donalds.

In a statement released Monday, Noem said, “Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration. We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida. Make America safe again.”

DeSantis touted the facility last week as “as safe and secure as you can be.”

Environmental groups are suing to stop construction, alleging the government violated the Endangered Species Act by building on protected land.

Protesters gathered along the highway that cuts through the Everglades to demonstrate on Saturday. They included environmental activists and Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands. Others demonstrated against the treatment of migrants.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her first public appearance since the Supreme Court sharply limited the ability of federal judges to check presidential power, said Saturday she believes recent rulings by the court’s conservative majority pose an “existential threat to the rule of law.”

“Sometimes we have cases that have those kinds of implications, and, you know, are there cases in which there are issues that have that kind of significance? Absolutely,” Jackson told ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis during a wide-ranging conversation at the Global Black Economic Forum.

The court’s newest justice and member of the liberal minority first leveled the charge last month in a remarkable solo dissent in the case Trump v Casa, which partially lifted nationwide injunctions against President Donald Trump’s executive order to effectively end birthright citizenship.

Jackson also wrote in her dissent that she has “no doubt that executive lawlessness will flourish because of the decision” and that she predicts “executive power will become completely uncontainable.” The unusually blunt and sobering assessment drew sharp criticism, including from her colleagues.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett accused Jackson of a “startling line of attack that is tethered neither to [precedent and the Constitution] nor, frankly, to any doctrine whatsoever.”

While Jackson did not directly address the case or specific criticism, she defended her right to express her views on the law and suggested that public scrutiny of the debate is welcomed.

“I am actually heartened that people are focused on the court and the work that we’re doing on the state of the government,” she told Davis. “As a democracy, the people are supposed to be the rulers. The people are supposed to be leading in terms of the policies and the way in which our government operates. And so, the more that people are engaged with our institutions the better.”

Jackson’s appearance came at the ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was part of a promotional tour for her new memoir, “Lovely One,” which chronicles her journey from south Florida to the Ivy League and on to the high court.

President Joe Biden appointed Jackson in 2022 to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. She is the first former public defender, for Florida-raised judge, and first Black woman to serve as a justice.

“I’m aware that people are watching,” Jackson told Davis. “They want to know how I’m going to perform in this job and in this environment, and so I’m doing my best work as well as I can do, because I want people to see and know that I can do anything just like anyone else.”

In her recently-concluded third term on the court, Jackson wrote more than 24 opinions — second only to Justice Clarence Thomas — and was the justice most often in dissent.

“We have very different opinions,” Jackson said, “and it’s a tradition of the Court that justices get to voice their opinions in the context of their opinions and writings.”

During oral arguments, Jackson was also among the most vocal on the bench — by one count uttering 79,000 words, more than any other colleague.

“It’s funny to me how much people focus on how much I talk in oral argument,” Jackson said. “It’s been a bit of an adjustment because as a trial court judge, you have your own courtroom so you can go on as long as you want. So, trying to make sure that my colleagues get to ask some questions has been a challenge for me, but I’ve enjoyed it.”

Jackson said she believes the justices are “good at separating out the work” and maintaining cordial personal relationships with each other despite their disagreements.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Democrats on Friday are gearing up for another day defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and the state GOP as they try to move forward with controversial redistricting.

The Texas House is set to meet as Republican legislators say that Friday is the deadline for Democratic legislators who’ve fled the state to return or face consequences.

House Republicans will try to vote on GOP-proposed new congressional maps that would give Republicans more seats in Congress — potentially allowing the GOP to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington.

Abbott has also requested the Texas Supreme Court to remove Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu, the Texas House minority leader, from office over the Democrats’ defiance. The court gave Wu until 6 p.m. ET Friday to respond to the governor’s case.

Wu told ABC News Thursday that he believes his caucus will hold out on Friday and once again deny the legislature a quorum, though he said they would be willing to come back to Austin if state Republicans promise to focus solely on other issues before the special session, including flood mitigation and disaster preparedness.

Democrats who have fled the state appear likely to stay away until Aug. 19, the end of the special session, meaning there will be not be enough lawmakers present for the Texas House to conduct business.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Fox News on Friday that he is willing to take other Democrats to court if they don’t return.

“If they show up today, we’re all happy, we can get our business done, and everybody is good. If they do not show up, we will be in an Illinois courtroom … [trying] to get them back to the state of Texas, hold them in contempt, and if they refuse to come, hopefully put them in jail,” he said.

He shrugged off concerns that the optics of arresting Democrats would give them a public opinion win.

“I think in Texas — I don’t know what it’s like in other states, but I do know in Texas, people expect their representatives to go to work,” Paxton said.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows targeted the wallets of the absent members in an effort to draw them back.

On Thursday, he sent a memo to all members and their staff requiring that any member who is absent from the special session to break quorum must collect their monthly check in person. Direct deposits were suspended for those skipping out until the House reaches quorum, according to memo.

Abbott has called for the Democrats’ arrest, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn has called on the FBI to track down those elected officials.

The governor said in a podcast released Friday that he was willing to go further than creating more than five new seats the GOP could flip if the Democrats continued to block.

“We may make it six or seven or eight new seats we’re going to be adding on the Republican side,” he said during an interview on the podcast “Ruthless.”

In the meantime, the Texas Democrats have fled to various blue states, including Illinois and California.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is slated to hold a news conference with those Democrats Friday afternoon, along with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and California state Democrats to show their support.

“The governor and state leaders have floated a potential statewide ballot measure that would reaffirm California’s commitment to national independent redistricting and allow voters to temporarily adjust the state’s congressional map only if Texas or other GOP-led states manipulate theirs,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

California Democrats are preparing to respond to Texas Republicans’ proposed new congressional districts by possibly targeting five GOP-held districts in the Golden State, sources recently confirmed to ABC station KGO-TV. But the office of the California Secretary of State told ABC News that if legislators don’t move fast, it becomes nearly impossible for the state to run a statewide election that meets federal standards.

ABC station KGO-TV’s Monica Madden contributed to this report.

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