Side Stories: ICE Stories w/ Kurt Braunohler & Thomas Kennedy

"There's no place to escape to, this is the last dog, cast on the left." "Side stories?" "That's one of the cannibalism started." "Side stories?" "Yes." "Hello, humans, dogs, and cats that listen and watch side stories. My name's Ed Larson, of course. Today's gonna be a very special episode. If you remember back, I did a whole episode on last podcast on the left that I led called the Florida Files, "Pain in the Everglades." And the thing that I realized about the Everglades, that was the saddest to me, of course, was alligator pelican or alligator alcatraz as it is better known. And it just hasn't set right with me. And then a week after our episode came out, the place shut down. And so I wanted to find out what was going on there now, what the state of Florida is like, an immigration across the country in general. So I'm sitting down with an amazing reporter. His name is Tomas Kennedy. He's written for the Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald, the Miami New Times, and of course, he's part of the Florida immigrant coalition. He's gonna be with me in a little bit. But first, I'm talking to a friend, you know, because if you're gonna get to the bottom of immigration, you really gotta hear it from two white men. And so I'm talking to a buddy of mine, Kurt Braunohler. And what happened to Kurt is, I'm gonna let him get into it, but his nephew has been detained by ICE for over two months, and they don't know what to do. And so he's my friend, and this is directly connected to me. And so as before we get started with Tomas, with some real answers, Kurt and I are gonna pose a couple of questions. So, take it away, Kurt. >> Welcome, Kurt Braunohler, how you doing, man? Thank you for joining me all the way overseas. >> Well, I appreciate it, Ed. Yeah, it's really crazy what happened to Nelson, Nelson Contreras, is my nephew. He is married to my niece, R.L. >> When did they get married? They got married in June, early June. And then he had a routine immigration check-in in Philadelphia, which usually is, he goes to a kiosk and just kind of like punches in saying, I'm here, I'm checking in, as is required by law, he is an asylum seeker, and he entered the country legally with asylum status and has had that status for the past four years. How is he coming from? >> He's coming from Venezuela, he's served in the National Guard and was asked to harm protesters and refused to do so, which made him an enemy of the state. >> Christ, so what exactly happened in that situation, if you don't mind me asking, do you know or? >> I do not know the details of it, it's all I know is that he was in the National Guard. >> Yeah. >> We all know. >> And because it was, yeah, there was protesters involved and he refused to harm them. And so that's kind of the situation that led him to not be safe in Venezuela. >> Wow. >> And how long ago was that? >> That was four years ago. >> Four years ago, okay, so he's been here for a while now. >> He's been here for a while, he, you know, and he's like, you know, he's the kindest man. He's like such a nice guy. He volunteered so much at the nonprofit near his house called Mighty Writers, that they hired him full time. And so he had a work permit. He was working full time there. He was also picking up shifts in the evening at agricultural places, like there's a mushroom farm nearby where he lives in Pennsylvania. >> Yeah. >> And he was like part of the community. I mean, he had been dating my niece for years and then they just got married. And then it was just like less than a month after he goes to, he goes to on a Thursday to check in for his immigration check-in and they tell him that the kiosk is broken, come back on Saturday. And so he follows their instructions, come back on Saturday. Of course, federal buildings are closed on a Saturday and ICE is waiting there and they abduct him. >> This is a story I've heard a bunch of times, which is very unfortunate. Was he the only person taken that day? Was he like specifically targeted, were they targeting like a group of people? >> I don't know that, actually, that's a good question. But it did seem like this was their plan to tell people that the kiosk was broken, so maybe they took a lot of people that day. >> Because people are just trying to do right. They're doing anything they can to not go home. I mean, this is a man seeking asylum and if you don't really know what that means, that means it's too dangerous for him to go back where he's from because people are looking for him at this point. And also, America has had an asylum process in place for decades. It's not like this is just some new thing that we're cooking up to try. This has always been a part of what it means to be an American is that we allow asylum cases for people who are in danger in their country. >> Yeah, for at least my whole life, I know that much. It has been going on forever, it says no, it says no. >> No. >> So he's working in the community, he gets married to your wonderful niece. He's doing everything he can and then he gets taken by ice and this was in June? >> This was in June. >> All right. >> Yeah, so he has now been incarcerated for over 60 days. As is typical, they shipped him far away from where he was detained and where he is. >> Oh, that's what they want, because they don't want anyone coming to visit him. Because usually these people don't have any money. And when they don't have money, they can't take off of work or they don't even have enough money to go rent to. Because you want to go see him twice maybe, if you're going to take a whole day, if they're far away. So you got to rent a hotel room, some people got to rent a car, some people, they got to take off work. This whole thing could end up costing $1,000 just to say hi. And then that experience alone is extremely traumatizing and not sweet like you hope it to be. >> Yeah. >> Exactly. >> It's torture. >> It takes her, if she wants to go see him, it's an entire day affair of her driving all the way out to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, where the detention center is. We do know where he is now. And we put money into his account so that he can text and he can make phone calls. So we've been in contact with him, which is great. >> So he has a canteen? Do they treat it like real jail? >> I think they do. Also, by the way, all of these detention centers are privately run. They're just making money, they're just making so much money off of what is going on. >> Stephen Miller is invested in him. >> It's really infuriating. And so within 24 hours of his detainment, my niece filed a habeas corpus petition. And so then it went to a federal judge, the federal judge pushed it off to an immigration judge. And this is the craziest part. He had 30 letters from the community, I wrote one, my wife wrote one, 30 letters in support. He had 30 people in the virtual courtroom waiting. And then as his case was called, they just kicked all of us out of the virtual waiting room. And then said it was some bullshit because of people have been recording the process or whatever. No one was recording their screen. They kicked us all out. They said 30 letters of support didn't matter, that he's still a flight risk, even though the only reason he was taking is because he was following the rules. >> Yeah, and don't they want to get rid of him? Don't they want him to be a flight risk? >> A flight risk meaning that he wouldn't show up for the rest of his asylum case hearings, right? But not that I don't know that he would leave, but which is insane. And so now that we've appealed that, it's gone to the federal judge. I just found out like 15 minutes before I got on that the federal judge denied the appeal. And so now we're just looking at this incredibly long drawn out process, because he had an asylum date, but that date was in December, that date was for people who are not incarcerated. And so now he has to get a new date for incarcerated persons, which he doesn't even have that yet. So now it's just this- >> So now he's looking to jail till at least 2027 if he's lucky. >> If he's lucky? Yeah. >> Kind of, for no reason. For a man he literally has been planting mushrooms, walking around, having a job in the community, just married an American, which shouldn't be enough. I always thought in my head until like last year that that was everything you needed. That was just you're married or you fall in love? You're married American? You're an American. >> Yeah, you have a meeting with somebody at the State Department. And they're like, let me see pictures from your wedding. And they look out of a picture, it's a real wedding, and then you get a green card, and then you have a green card, and then you're on a path to getting citizenship. >> Man, it seems- >> I've heard of even crazier cases, which is what they were doing in Florida, where people would do the habeas corpus, they would say they couldn't find, because the alligator alcatraz just straight up wasn't logging people into the system, and they'd show up. And so- They would file habeas corpus, and when the habeas corpus was filed, they would move the people in the middle of the night to a different detention center. And then you would have to file a whole new habeas corpus. And it was just a process that kept going over and over and over and over again. So the fact that it only happened once to you guys is almost a miracle because I think Pennsylvania is slightly better than Florida. And it's just the whole process right now. And the food they're being fed is horrible. How do you know about the treatment of his facility? Because I know over Delaney and New Jersey just a couple miles away is a total nightmare. Yeah, and that has like 300 people there. I mean, someone just died at Delaney Hall. Yeah. I live not too far away from Delaney Hall, and it's insane. He is at one of the largest detention centers I think in the Northeast. It's outside of State College, Pennsylvania. And so the as far as I understand there have not been too horrific of, it's just jail. It's jail conditions as opposed to like treating human beings like animal's conditions. So if that's, you know, it's like good, no, it's still jail, right? Exactly. No, it's tough. And so you always kicked out of the Zoom. And first of all, why are you not even allowed to record the Zoom? Who cares? It's court. Who cares? Yeah. It's what it doesn't matter. It's hiding something because they know they're doing something wrong. No. And also, the judge would not let his lawyer speak. Just kept in cook cutting her off and cutting her off, saying like I've seen that she wouldn't allow the lawyer on for Nelson to explain the summary of her, you know, of her motion. And then, and then at one point, apparently, just turned her camera off and then the, you know, the, the, the federal lawyer turned his camera off and then they were just both gone for like 15 minutes and then just came back and it was over. Have you met other people going through this, through this process? Like, when you guys are in, I'm sure your niece definitely has because she's been going to the detention center. But yeah, like, you know, what else have you heard? Like, I'm sure many people have shared their stories with you at this point. Yeah. I mean, it's just, you know, my niece, when she goes, it's just all families. And if there's a family member who's been ripped literally out of their community over and over and over again, you know, this is the insane part to me is that this, what's happening to Nelson is happening to thousands of people in the United States. And it's crazy. These camps. They're, it's crazy. Yeah. I mean, they are, they are camps. They're concentration camps. There's no way, and like, if people get upset when you call them that, because they always go back to the Holocaust. They're like, Oh, you know, they're not, they're not putting people in ovens. They're not doing this. They're why you can't call them a constant Auschwitz was a working camp for multiple years before they started killing people. Now, just at the end, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're German. You know, they were your friends. They were. But, you know, it's, so it's, it's one of those things where it's like, this is the beginning. They just recently said they, if they deport people and they die mysteriously, once they get back where they're going, they're not counting. They're not counting those deaths. This is what's happening right now where we are descending into straight up fascism. There's no if ands buts about it. Your family is directly affected by it. You're a regular ass. White dude who's just like, look at how white I am. And my family's not protected from it. Yeah. This is the, the originally the agreement was, if you're this white, then your family is protected. So this is all completely insane. There is a GoFundMe set up for Kurt and his family and it's doing well. I suggest you go and check it out. It's on his Instagram. But also, there's so many people who have no one. There's so many people who are just going through this and being tortured in jail. And it went from what I learned about alligator alcatraz, there was not to scare you too much because I know you love this man, but they're literally putting people in the box. You know, they're doing, they're doing horrible things to these people. In the middle of summer, they're taking away basic human rights. They got their water, has parasites in it, it's, it's awful. Everything is awful. What's happening right now, we're deliberately torturing people who would be great Americans. If we, and they're paying taxes, this, Nelson, Nelson pays taxes. Nelson has a permit. You know, it's multiple jobs. Yeah, you know that every time you get paid through a work permit, they take a bunch of the goddamn money. So it's not like he's not contributing to society. It's not like he's working, not working for nonprofits. They're stealing good people from good families. And now my friend is a victim and it's insane. And so I think that everyone, if you look hard enough, someone you know, someone you love is a victim of this shit. And you got to go and sick of people just sitting around and thinking that it's just going to fix itself. We have to do something. You got to get out there. You got to talk about this as much as possible. You hear someone at the dinner table saying that this is a good thing. You fucking yell at them because this is ridiculous. We're heading into disaster. Everyone's going to have to leave this country if it keeps going this way. You know, and so, and I'm sorry to go on a rant for you, Kurt, but this is, but I'm sure you're blue in the face for this last two months. You're just supposed to be going out there and make up people laugh. You're fucking sad all the time. You can, isn't it helping? This is the nightmare. You know? Yeah. I mean, I think the main thing to keep in mind is like, if it can happen to my family, it can happen to your family. It can happen. It can happen. I have wonderful members of my family who are from Peru. And I get so scared for them all the time. And it's just, and they've been married to my dad and I just, at this point, I don't think any rules matter anymore. And they're just taken people. They've deported Americans. They're taken people who are served for this country. It is, it is, all rules are out the window. It's all about money. It is nothing to do with anything. It's not about keeping us safe. Nelson wasn't hurting anybody. Nelson was only helping people. And that's what they're more concerned about. It's people who are making it easier for everyone else. Yeah. Yeah. No criminal record whatsoever. And also what this doesn't speak to as well is just like the level of fear that everyone has to live with because of the way that ice operates with no rules across the board. I had someone contact me who's a close friend. Her son is married, is married to someone who was not born in this country. But she hasn't been able to get the green card yet. And so they were going to go to a movie or something. And she was like, oh, I forgot, she ran back. It was like 100 degrees out. She was like, I forgot my sweater. She like grabbed her sweater. And she's like, they're like, why do you need your sweater? She's like, I just, you know, in detention centers, it's really cold I've heard. And so I just want to have it on me in case something happens. And that has to be her everyday life. It's just normal. At all times. Just normal. That's just a normal thing. Yeah. I got my sweater because it's cold in jail for no reason. For no reason. This is fucking ridiculous. I'm really sorry that you're going through this, bro. My heart goes out to you and your family. I'm getting the word out the best I can. Please, everyone, just do something about this. Don't just sit there. This is just tearing apart normal ass people all over this country. Do you have any concerns? I'm talking to an expert in a little bit. Is there anything that you'd like me to ask? Oh, I don't know about that, but I do know, I just want to tell everybody that my niece and my nephew are from the sixth district in Pennsylvania. If anybody has any, knows anybody from the sixth district in Pennsylvania that might be able to help just wanted to get that word out there as well. Well, thank you so much for coming by, buddy. I love you, Kurt. Kurt's been so good to me my whole comedy career from performing in the back of a U-Haul truck and driving us around and it's flying around everywhere. You're the craziest dude ever. The only show I've ever did that had a puppy parade connected to it is one of the great minds of my comedy generation and I love you so much, Paul, and I can't wait for this all to get fixed for you and your family. No one deserves this, including everyone else you don't know. They also don't deserve this. Get back to your vacation. I love you. Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you, everybody. All right. Thank you. Okay, now I'm being joined by a man I admire very much to be honest with you. He lives in Miami. He's a reporter. He's part of the Florida immigrant coalition if you want to, if you're curious what he's doing and what he's working on, go to Tomas Ken on Instagram that's T-O-M-A-S-K-E-N-N on Instagram to stay up to date on everything he's doing. He's got lots of articles in the Miami New Times. I believe you've written for the Miami Herald and the Sun Sentinel as well, which are very good papers. And it's an honor to be here with you. First off, I want to thank you because when I did the Florida Files episode and I talked about alligator alcatraz a little bit, I reached out to Tomas and I was like, please tell me what I'm doing wrong. [BLANK_AUDIO] I believe you I believe you help me a great deal and I want to thank you Thank you for the bottom my heart because it's such a touchy subject and I'm just a silly comedian And so it is it is nice to have someone who's a Very much smarter than I I'm sure it's not the case, but that's very generous and kind then I'm happy to have helped Is it is a great conversation now? So yeah, I probably hear that. Were you able to did you ever listen to the episode? I did I that what did I get wrong No, I'm not No, I'm not anything that I can remember really yes Hey, no, I think if it was horrible, you definitely would remember it So right after the episode came out alligator Alcatraz closed like the next week it was It was so bizarre It was it was very bizarre so um what's going on down there now that it's closed? I mean, so most of the people that were in there are unfortunately not Free they're not in you know, they did not re-acquire their freedom if the vast majority of people were transferred over to other Detention facilities whether in Florida or in other states and some were actually sent to Jails, you know like regular jails that have been converted at least parts of them For immigration detention through federal agreements with with the Department of Homeland Security Um, and these jails are yeah, and these jails are way over capacity Due to the optic and immigration enforcement that we've seen in in in you know in recent days in recent weeks So obviously, it's a good thing that that detention facility the alligator Alcatraz the concentration camp is closed That's in and of itself a good thing, but that doesn't mean that conditions for the for for the detainees that were formerly there have gotten better unfortunately And uh, so they're at local jails now too. That's insane to me with because it's not a real I mean is it is it an actual crime? Are they charged with anything when they're being held? No, I mean, you know, we've seen the statistics but seven oh Over 70% 71% of people in ice detention do not have a criminal history or criminal charges That's and that's the statistic that has actually Held for the last two years as a constant. It's it's curious Um, but no, I mean most of them are guilty of if anything as a civil infraction, right? Yeah, being in the country without authorization, but that that that doesn't amount to a criminal charge in in most cases Yeah, so obviously alligator Alcatraz was the worst of the worst What are the other detention centers like and uh, what what what are some of them? There's the one in close to Jacksonville Yeah, that that was a deportation depot or something like that So it's so stupid. I hate them so much, but yeah, but yeah They actually you know, we actually when they opened they started selling home depot themed merch Yeah, that was deportation depot merch And we actually contacted with the help of a representative Anis Gamani who's a great lawmaker here in in Florida We contacted home depots lobbyist and they actually had Ended up themselves contacting the state of Florida and sent them a cease and desist to get them to stop selling Home Depot deportation depot merch. So there's just a little tidbit But yeah, I mean that's that's a facility. That's that's a a converted Um jail that they have adapted into Uh an immigration detention site. I mean, there's Glades County, which there's another sheriff front facility that has historically had a contract To detain immigrants. There's uh, is that up by Glades Central Pahokie area correct exactly. Yeah, then there's BTC Uh, I think that's Broward transitional center in Pompano Beach, which is a completely for-profit privately run immigration Detention facility. It's run by the geo group one of the largest for-profit prison companies in the United States and really the world Then there's the chrome detention facility, which has been at that one's controlled by the federal government And historically was a missile silo during the cold war that was converted after you know the the Mariel boat lift Uh, and that influx it was converted over time into a detention facility and historically it's been used as such Uh, but yeah, there's a number of detention facilities and in fact, there's now an effort by the Florida Department Of motor vehicles, which houses the Florida highway patrol one of the most cellist agencies and immigration enforcement in Florida they just brought out a document of of expressing interest in acquire five or more facilities to be converted into detention sites, which means that the Florida highway patrol is not just in the immigration and enforcement business style They appear to be attempting to get into the business of handling detention facilities themselves Isn't is that legal? I mean we are in a lawless Timing or in this country unfortunately. I mean look we we talked about this When we when we discuss alligator alcatraz aligator alcatraz never signed what's called a 27g Contract or an intergovernmental service agreement or an IGSA So it's a you know, I don't want to get to in the weeds and bore people, but you know under the INA which is the Immigration and Nationality Act There's a section called 287g, which is used to delegate federal authority To state or local entities to conduct immigration responsibilities, right? And Where there is police or I mean is impality or a detention facility these legal agreements have to be signed because under the constitution The supremacy clause gives the federal government again immigration responsibilities so Aligator alcatraz never signed these contracts. They were operating completely with outside the purview of the federal government Obviously with the blessing but outside the purview of the federal government with no Legal authority to detain immigrants. There was a law there was an active lawsuit that was still pending When the place closed down there was several actually But they did it anyways because they don't they don't care Yeah, no was alligator alcatraz a private prison No alligator alcatraz well sort of alligator alcatraz was a state-run Prison that was managed by the Florida department of emergency management Historically tasked with dealing you know with with emergencies like hurricanes your Florida But they got hurt her cans are very popular in Florida correct Then you know they happen with with frequency But they got into the business of immigration detention They actually spent more than a billion dollars of our emergency preparedness fund They there's only nine million dollars left by the time that they had finished rated rating it But so it was a state-run facility, but everything inside it was administered by contractors whether it was You know health services which were lackluster to say the least yeah security A transportation communications the building food etc it was all Ran by vendors and that's why they spent so much money on it because people were getting the bag right? I mean all these contractors walked away with millions and millions and millions of dollars more than a billion dollars actually Yeah, and it was all paid a play too because a lot of those contractors they had donated to DeSantis and then A couple weeks later they would get these contracts to build alligator alcatraz correct You know for for example, and this happened numerous times, but a Texas-based company received a six million dollar contract Days After giving the Florida GOP the Florida Republican Party at $10,000 donation. So that's that's a big return on investment, right? Absolutely. Oh my gosh. I wish we had that over here So explain to me. I think I need a little help with this, but I'm pretty sure people at home definitely do How does the private president make money off of immigrants being put there? It doesn't it doesn't make sense to me Well, one is from the contracts right that they are receiving from the federal government, but often times I mean the the federal government subsidizes the the beds the beds means that each individual person that is Detained right and there's bed for us. So these these for prisons have Quodas in terms of how many people need to be detained there which gives an incentive in terms of deporting people or not But it's all done through basically the transfer of taxpayer dollars public funds Into the coffers of these private contractors Yeah, and it's um again, that's the geo-group and core civic is another one, right? Core civic is a huge for-profit uh prison company in the United States and again, these companies don't just do Um immigration detention. They also have regular Uh criminal for-profit jails, which is also a you know, it's it's it's an it's an evil industry to be honest It is it is and Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm gonna say that a hundred times today um the uh A don't do politicians they invest in these places, right? Like a core civic and uh in geo-group like there are like Steven Miller. I heard has Private prison stock and he's the one making all these laws correct Steven Miller uh has uh A stake in not just uh for-profit prisons, but also companies that are creating uh surveillance technologies like Palantir for example, but the if So the inverse of that is that these companies also invest in politicians through campaign donations, right? I'll tell you a story from years ago, I'm folks might remember this because it was like a big national controversy. I mean, this was like eight years ago, yeah, in 2018, there was a detention facility, a for-profit detention facility in Homestead, which is a city in the southern part of Miami-Dade County, that was just solely for underage minors. For unaccompanied migrant children. And that facility was administered by a company named Calibern, sort of like this global transnational company. And who sat on the board of Calibern at the time? And it's subsidiary CDR John Kelly, who was, if you might remember, he was not only Trump's first Homeland Security Secretary. He went on to be his chief of staff, right? So I said it to highlight, whether it's that instance, or Stephen Miller profiting off of Palantir and for-profit prison companies, there's a revolving door of circular financing, right? Where like these people go into the public sector, they institute this predatory detention and enforcement policies, and then they take a stake on the companies that carry it out and turn a profit themselves. How was DeSantis using the money from Alligator Alcatraz, personally? That's a great question. So there was great reporting by the Florida Phoenix and other outlets here in Florida that showed that, as I told you, the Florida Department of Emergency Management was their entity responsible for Alligator Alcatraz, they were rating our emergency fund, Florida's Emergency Fund. And it turns out that they were pretty much grifting with it. They were receipts that they used the money on private hotel stays that are resorts like Margarita Bill. They were running all the- Well, that's where business in politics is conducted in Florida. And they were running bar tabs at Margarita Bill and other bars in places as far as Tallahassee, which is nowhere near Alligator Alcatraz. They were paying for catering, for things nowhere near Alligator Alcatraz. Not that it should matter, but that's to the grift. They were paying for private jet charters, for car rentals. That's like 100,000 a pop for private jets. That's expensive, man. The abuse of this funds was so egregious that the Florida legislature, which has served us pretty much a rubber stem for whatever the governor's wanted to do in the last eight, nine years, they actually passed the bill obstructing some of these expenditures, because it was just so corrupt and grifty. Man, that is nauseating. The- Now, Alligator Alcatraz closed that land, has it gone back to the Mika Suki people, or is it still government on land? I'm sorry, I do have to add one more insane expenditure. Give it to me. They spent- I'm not kidding here. $219 million on one porta-potty company called Duty Calls. Just one porta-potty company. $219 million. But to your question, so the actual land was never in possession of the Mika Suki tribe, even though it is on the big cypress preserve, and it's adjacent to their reservation, it is owned by Miami-Dade County. And it sits an air strip that was part of an abandoned plan to build what was called Jetport Everglades, which at the time was going to be the largest airport in the world. It was fought against by a bunch of environmentalists, because they wanted to- they were concerned about the impact to the Everglades ecosystem. Yeah, you got the mangroves and everything down there. You can't be running the biggest airport in the world on Swamp. It's a bad idea. Correct. It was abandoned in the '60s, but there was one air strip that was built and sort of abandoned. But it was used by Miami-Dade County as a training airport for small to light aircraft. So that's what it's been historically, and the state of Florida ceased the land from Miami-Dade County, a commandeer that for a year. Now it's reverted back to Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade County is back in possession, and everything in there has been dismantled. There's still an active lawsuit related to the environmental impact and damage that the site did for the past year. Yeah, because there's one of the largest aquifers in Florida down there, right? It's not just that. It's the mangroves, it's the aquifer, it's just the over-the-ground water, the wildlife, Florida panthers, which have been historically in danger than only in recent years. Their population has begun to increase. That land is so protected that it's one of two places in Florida, I believe, that has a dark sky designation. What that means is that there can be any sort of lighting or illumination infrastructure built there because of the impact to wildlife, reptiles, birds, especially, or Attorney General James Uthmeyer and the governor looked at the facility and said, "Oh, it has an air strip. We can execute deportation flights," and that was just, I think, the sole determining factor in picking that place, which is insanely idiotic, but that's how we're governed here in Florida. Is he the guy who said that they'll have to face the alligators in the pythons if they escaped? Is it the same dude? Correct, yeah. He was one way in, one way out, anyone who escapes, there's the panthers and pythons and alligators waiting for you. He's like a straight-up little Nazi, I mean, like a fascist. Also, get rid of the pythons. They're not supposed to be there. Do your job. Get rid of the pythons, bro. What are we doing here? Unfortunately, there were two busy grifting with the emergency fund to do that and running bar tabs in Liberty bar in Tallahassee. That is wild. I tell you, as someone who's drunk a lot in Tallahassee, to run up a bar tab that high is pretty hard to do. Correct. It's a cheap one. It's a cheap one. It's tough to drink. I'm sure it's time there. So what's the situation going on right now in Miramar at the ISA Enforcement Removal Operation Center, because they took on a lot of the people from Alligator Alcatraz, and so it's kind of chaotic down there right now, or am I incorrect? No, you're correct. So, Miramar has an ISA facility that serves as a processing center, a check-in center. It's where people go to basically, you know, adjudicate their asylum claims or any other sort of immigration process to meet with ISA, right? Yeah. Basically, you can get apprehended there. Sometimes you're not, you know, it's a nerve-wracking interview if you have to go there. But obviously, under this administration, the apprehensions the arrest have increased dramatically, and also the enforcement on the ground that we see every day in the streets. So because there's no more space in detention facilities, like I told you, they're starting to hold people not just in criminal, like criminal jails, regular jails that they've converted, but also in these, like, administrative offices. So, and there's actually a judicial federal order that prevents them from holding people immigrants specifically in these administrative facilities for more than 12 hours overnight, right? Despite that, they're holding dozens of people, I mean, 70, 90 people per these large rooms, they converted the garage into a holding facility, and they're holding dozens and dozens of people for over a week until they can finally transfer them to, for wherever their space. You know, these places don't have bathrooms, they're not equipped to, you know, to be a detention place. There's no food. People aren't able to shower, brush their teeth. They're sleeping on the floor, piled up on top of each other, and you don't have to take it from me. We actually work to the Congresswoman here in Florida who visited and saw with her own eyes the conditions on the grounds, who went out and did a press conference, who was reported on the Miami Herald, but the conditions there are pretty bad. Yeah, they're, like, they're fine, like, the waters filled with, like, parasites for, and like, they could see things swimming around in the water from what I was told. Yeah, correct. And so, but also people who speak out about the mistreatment, they end up getting punished quite often. The guards will lash out at them or they'll get solitary confinement and stuff like that. Have we been seen? Is that persisted? Because I know that was happening at alligator alcatraz. Yeah, and alligator alcatraz, I mean, the treatment was so bad. We worked with Abnerstein International on a report, and we were contacted by a family member, and we ended up being, we ended up being getting in touch with the detainee themselves. But, and this happened numerous times, they would punish people by, with something called the box, which was a two-by-two-feet box, where they would chain people to the ground and leave them exposed to the sun and mosquitoes for five to seven hours outdoors in the hot Florida summer. I mean, brutal. And, you know, Abnerstein International found this to be, to constitute a torture, this sort punishment. It is. But recently, here in downtown Miami, where I told you they're holding people in a regular jail at the federal detention facility, again, it's a criminal jail. They commandeered two floors for the holding dozens of people. A man spoke to his wife, Cuban couple, and told her about the mistreatment, the lack of food, the fact that they had found bugs in their food, that, for example, the place flooded and they were forced to sleep overnight on soaking wet mattresses. She didn't interview with the media about this, and then that he was placed in solitary confinement for, I think, two weeks, as punishment. Completely insane. Just for saying, my mattress is wet. No, I mean, we're agreeing with each other. I also want to reiterate that, and this is going to sound silly to say, but immigration detention, the way it's codified, it's not supposed to constitute a punishment in the way that, let's say, criminal detention is, right? It's literally supposed to just be, you're being held while your immigration situation is being adjudicated or resolved, right? And the way it's written like this is because it's supposed to not be cruel or torturous or, again, constitutes something that can be described as punishing. Obviously, it is, always, but these conditions are just exacerbating and getting worse. I mean, jail effectively is punishment for a crime. And if these people are being held in jails and they are being punished, it's not hard to put it all together. The way people just turn a blind eye to all this stuff is nauseating. Earlier in the episode, I talked to a friend of mine, Kurt Braunleur, who is a great comedian. His nephew is currently being held in a detention center in Pennsylvania. He was seeking asylum from Venezuela. He was part of the National Guard there and he refused to attack protesters in Venezuela. And so he was seeking asylum in America. He was trying to go through the process. He went, he was literally showing up to his appointment and they said, come back on Saturday because the key ask was broken. And then when he came back on Saturday, I surrested him. And he's been in detention for 60 days. And it doesn't look like he's going to get out this year because they keep pushing back as asylum case date. And I think that's something that's happening all over the country. My question is, are we taking anyone for asylum right now? What is our asylum process? Because we've always done that. Yeah, and to your point, you know, these people that I'm describing at this federal detention facility in Miami, most of them were previously held in alligator alcatraz. And some of them are eight, nine, ten months into their detention. I mean, they've lost a year of their life. Short, you know, over a life is short while you have like 60 years, if you're lucky, maybe 70, 80 years of life, if you're, if you're, if you're lucky. Yeah, you know, you, these people lost a year of their lives, you know, yeah. And these are people who don't have money. They are, you know, and if you don't have money in this country, I'm sure they don't have life health insurance. I'm sure they're unhealthy and it's hard for them to get the medicine they need for problems. They don't even know they have because they can't go to the doctor when life is good. So it's, it's, it is torture. And people are dying inside of these places. At what rate are people dying? Like how often do people die in detention centers in Florida? Right. I do want to address your, your, your last question, though, are the asylum processes have been completely, you know, the, the, the S Ledgehammer has been taken to them, right? I mean, it is very difficult to resolve an asylum claim positively in the United States right now because USCIS has been, you know, the, the, the sort of like the agency that administers immigration case work outside of enforcement has been completely gutted. Immigration judges have been fired and replaced with Trump style lackeys. Obviously, the Department of Homeland Security is so aggressive and it's enforcement and they're targeting people and detaining people with active pending asylum claims that haven't been denied or anything like that. So, you know, and obviously our refugee resettlement here in the United States also has been, you know, completely gutted. I mean, you know, I'm sure you've read the headlines about Trump wanting to accept so pretty much solely whites how that freaking says, yeah, as refugees. So that's, that's it. That's what he wants for me to take care of. That's what he wants. What he said. But yeah, they, they, they've, you know, they've really destroyed the system. But I believe, I'm not, I believe 112 people, I believe 112 people have died so far in ice detention during the second, just the second Trump administration. Man, you know, I grew up in South Florida. I love it down there. It was always home to me. It's where I consider home, even though I'm probably never going to live there again. No offense. But, but, you know, I worked in kitchens, you know, I made buddies with Cubans and Dominicans and mostly Haitians. And I know that they're all great people. I know that Haitians make South Florida work. They are, you know, because they forget restaurants or healthcare. They're in nursing homes. They're in home health. They're helping all the old people stay alive. And right now, there is a crackdown on Haitians in particular. And who I believe should be, all of them should be eligible for asylum seeking because we've destroyed Haiti through earthquakes and neglect. And, you know, and just taking the money that's donated and put it back into businesses rather than communities. You know, there's, I know that there's communities in Haiti that are completely run by gangs. There's, you know, there's, I've heard reports of 10,000 people sharing four spickets, you know, three bathrooms. It's not great over there right now. And right. And so now we're deporting people from the, the Haitians are being targeted and being deported back to Haiti. Can you, you live in little Haiti? What's your community like right now? Yeah. And just a recommendation for the audience. There's a great book. I'm sure many of, actually, the listeners are probably familiar with it. But if you're not black Jacobins, a story of the Haitian revolution that kind of sets the stage of how Haiti has been pillaged by a foreign intervention in the, in the last, you know, century or so. But I highly recommend the book, black Jacobins. But yes, so temporary protected status, which granted legal protections to 350,000 Haitians, 158,000 who reside here in South Florida has been rescinded by the Trump administration. There was a lawsuit that escalated to the Supreme Court and our far right Supreme Court, unfortunately, gave Trump a green light to proceed with that. So there's 350,000 people. Many of them even here for years and years and years, they have homes, they have mortgages, they have cars, they have loved ones, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, children, family, co-workers. You know, their lives have been uprooted. And it's not just they have, they're not the only ones impacted, right? Everybody that interacts with them, their employers or co-workers, et cetera. I mean, it's created a lot of chaos in our community. And, you know, we're seeing enforcement every day. I mean, I put this on my Instagram. I was driving home on Sunday and I stumbled on Northwest Second Avenue by Jackson Memorial Hospital. Major thoroughfare here in South Florida. Jackson Memorial Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in the country. Correct. Yeah. Four unmarked vehicles blocking the road completely. And there were like five, you know, ice guys obviously with their faces covered with the masks and everything, stopping an Uber car, forcing the passenger out, I talked to the passenger that's how I learned what was going on, arresting the driver. Obviously, I ride a motorcycle. I stopped. I immediately started filming and, you know, asking what was going on. They rapidly got into their car. They took the guy's car. They took him and they just drove off. It's something out of a dictatorship, you know what I mean? I'm from Argentina in the 1970s. We had a military junta who'd like, disappeared people, picking them off the street like that. And then I talked to the passenger and I was like, what happened? It's like they were targeting the driver and they told me they had to get out and get a walk or get another Uber. And we see that every day. We see them picking up patients in our neighborhood. There's a very famous restaurant in South Florida in Miami called Chef Creole. It's probably the most famous Haitian restaurant in Miami. And the owner recently made national news because he came out and did an interview and said, they're deporting all of my workers. I'm going to have to, they're several. It's like a local franchise at this point or he owns several. I wonder if it's a franchise, but yeah, he said, I'm going to have to close at least two of my restaurants because I don't have staff. But then he admitted and I voted for Trump. I voted for Trump because I thought he was a good businessman. He was going to be good for the economy, but he hasn't been good for the economy. So you know, people, you know, people really have to depend on what they're doing. You know, I mean, how are you as a Haitian man? You know, going to vote for a guy that said, your people are eating cats and dogs and he's promising, he would be promised to deport not just your workers, man, but your people. You know our people we're all immigrants is not just about nationality, but I don't I don't get it But obviously the guy was roasted alive when they heard it. Yeah, I've seen a lot of it You know down it's been Florida especially, but I even out here in Los Angeles in San Diego I see a lot of it. I see a lot of immigrants were very pro Trump a lot of Cubans Which blows my mind? Very very pro Trump. What do you think that is? I'll tell you another news report that I saw recently it was a Cuban man that owns a Plant nursery here in homestead. They you know they grow small plants would be put away and he was saying I'm gonna have to close Close down because they're the party all my workers and he's like he said I try to pay people $30 an hour people don't want to come do this work. It's difficult work Yeah, and he said I'm gonna have to close down. I've been here for decades But then at the end of the day they asked this the asked them Because he said he voted for Trump and they're like you're a great hero for Trump and he said no I actually don't regret my vote for Trump, but you know he needs to stop deporting regular people He needs to focus on the criminals. I'm like brother. You you that you missed the mass deportation science during the Man, you know, oh my god. I don't know. I think it's just like a people are programmed a certain way like it's might be the The anti-communism fervor that people in this town have. I don't know what it is, but it's inexplicable a lot of people are Turning a page on Trump, I think especially people who have been personally directly impacted But then there's other people like that that are said we'll say I will have to shut down my literal livelihood Because of this administration's policies, but you know what I just I don't know. There's too many woke shit in universities So fuck it. I don't know. I don't get it. Yeah. No man. It's it's crazy down there like all my little protests And you know, it all comes down to like these you know like for example, it's now DJT international instead of PBI for West Palm Beach airport. It's like well now I'm never flying there Like now I go visit people in Boka I gotta go to for a lot of the Miami because I can't Bring it to me to buy a ticket to Donald Trump airport Miami historically, you know, we name things like that like afterwards. Yeah, like when someone that look I don't think we should never name it You have to trump honestly, but I just don't think we do that for a reason, right? Because we don't it's like it has it feels Dictator should be to name things after people who are alive, but you know, you know, that's the goal statues But um, so Miami I love Miami. It's a beautiful place means the world to me. It's probably got 15 years left on this earth the are the they're cooperating with ice correct like the city of Miami now is it the mayor like who is because I Stop what I asked I have to ask this question because this I haven't heard much about it since it happened the mayor of Miami Did they really cancel elections just so they could be the mayor longer? Is that something that happened or am I Misinterpreted an article I read they tried to so they tried to basically I believe what you're referencing they tried to move municipal elections from odd to even years to align with the regular calendar But they did it in a way that would grant them an extra year in office So it's like no, no, no, if you guys move the election you have to move it so you lose a year if anything you can't move it So you gain a year because we didn't elect you for that year So ultimately they backed off from that and they put a referendum on the ballot that the voters approved of so we did move to even years But you know, but it wasn't through Executive action of the commissioners. So this is the person we're dealing with and they're working with ice directly Yeah, so these remember these 27G contracts established in this collaboration. Yeah, I Florida accounts for 43% of these type of contracts nationwide. So many municipalities and cities have signed these agreements But there's a state law that compels certain municipal entities to enter them Squirely those that operate a jail or detention facility city of Miami does not operate a jail They interdisagreement voluntarily. There was nothing compelling to do so they did so last year and that created a Firestorm in the city that has only grown over time due to the the enforcement attention the economic policies Trump's unpopularity, etc in Late last year we have municipal elections in which the first Democrat mayor was elected in well over Almost two decades her name is Eileen Higgins, and she campaigned On rescinding this police ice collaboration agreements. I mean she spoke about it numerous numerous times and when she Was voted into office. She stopped talking about it Never addressed it even though she can she can put it on the agenda for it to be voted on and three out of the five commissioners have Single that they would vote so for it to be rescinded they could also place on the agenda to be fair But she can paint on it and she hasn't done so and the for the only thing that she's been focused on is a a Bond item That will be voted on in November to give more money for to police officers for for their police stations and firefighters as well But just completely abandoned this pledge to protect our immigrant neighbors You know, and that that's that's our our first democratic mayor and in in almost two decades That's insane to me. That's so aggravating There's a Miami's a town where some neighborhoods The stop sign say alto, you know, like it's so it's not for us And for them to be attacked immigrants is so counterproductive, especially if you're a Democrat It's insane to me and focus on the climate change the beach is washing away But it's coming in three blocks and with the moons in the wrong place You know, it's it's crazy what's happening down there and it's not just it's not just that she's a Democrat, right? It's that she's a Democrat that campaigned on the issue and and one like decisively Well speaking on this, you know like you do you do have a Popular Democratic mandate to act on this and you know the five commissioners are signaling that they would vote for you Like what is the hold up here and it's been it's been seven months in sorry election. What is the hold up? Yeah, no, if the only thing you've done is get more money for cops, you know No, I don't like you is not but you're um you're the people you work with the Florida immigrant coalition Y'all are you got a kid you got a campaign to raise awareness for this right yeah, we've been for months I mean recently we we were able to convince one of the commissioners who's a pretty decent commissioner actually to put it as a public discussion item Over a hundred people showed up every single one of them spoken opposition for over almost four hours You know, we've we've sent out mass text to city residents. We've done phone banking Email blasts et cetera. We've met with some of the commissioners, you know to try to move this forward And now we've we're putting up a series of billboards along the I-95 and the little Havana neighborhood targeting the mayor and commissioners To try and get them to act on this and a radio at as well in Spanish language radio Targeting highly Eileen Higgins for her failed Promises great. Thank you. I appreciate that There is um, there's a couple things that um I need to ask you because I'm just I don't understand them The first thing is what is this? I've heard that this administration is stopped reporting deaths of people released from ice detention Is that is that something that I am I am I just completely off base here or because I I read it's like It's one of those things where I read a headline and I pass and I keep going and then I don't know what the hell I'm talking about And so I just want to make sure I'm understanding things properly. I read it to an inquire frankly I don't really understand the mechanics of it either I think it's just one of those like lawless things from this administration Something that they do Historically, and this is something that ice has always done, but you know Again, these are things that are systemic, you know to just how DHS and detention operates, but they exacerbate they faster and grow worse on their from we started in the first and second administration But they often play around with the dates when when when someone dies and they won't like they won't report it until like later You know when there's like news that will cover it up or they'll like avoid Reporting it on like a Tuesday and instead they'll do it on a Friday because it's you know, it's a new stump day So that's something that's very frequent. They they definitely play with dates to minimize coverage So to kind of like try to news dump like you know dump it. Wow because like my brain is like oh, they're not telling us who dies at the camps That sounds pretty not secoded to me, you know That's that's when it starts taking the step over from being a concentration camp to a death camp And so I was frankly terrified and the other thing is that like every single Death, you know that happens in these detention facilities is They're all suicides everyone is a suicide every single one's a suicide and Quite frankly, yeah, some of them are probably suicides, but you know, then it turns out there was one Their entire life taken from them, you know, right, but there was one for example Or they were it was I forgot which this I think was in Louisiana, but I don't remember But there was one where a man was ruled as a death was ruled as a suicide, and then the autopsy revealed that he had like strangle marks, like asphyxiation marks. And then the autopsy ruled it as a forced asphyxiation or whatever. So you know, like I just always stressed both people, and especially journalists, like don't take what DHS and ICE tell you at face value. Like if they say someone died of a suicide, like I do not accept that explanation until further review of the situation. And like if a prison's owned by Corsific or Geo Group, who are the guards? Because they're not cops, they're not, right? They're just people they hire. And they get to choose. Correct. And what's the training like for these people? I mean, poor. I think they're Alcatraz, which is a state-run facility, as I explained to you, managed by the Florida Department of Emergency Management. It wasn't a privately run facility as we established. That facility had almost no ICE presence. It was all Florida highway patrol. And inside, mainly, it was private contractors, private vendors that were doing the security. So they just hire, you know, just people and train them poorly and let them loosen. Obviously, look, I federalized attention is bad, but I think it's all terrible. It should be abolished. But when you move it to the for-profit motive, obviously, there's an incentive to lock people up, but there's less accountability and transparency. It's the same thing with these flock cameras, right? There's for example, like vast surveillance networks in dictatorial countries, or even like Britain, right? That it's like one of the most surveilled countries on Earth. But I think there's a difference between the surveillance is owned and administered by the actual government. There's more accountability and there's more of a civic processes to affect outcomes, right? And then it's all bad, right? But in the United States, we're just outsourcing or surveillance or enforcement and our detention to private companies that are just completely outside the balance of civic and democratic processes. And I think it's extra disturbing. What's up with Argentina taking on Peter Teal? What is that? You're from there. What's going on there? Is that how illegal is that? How would they save and money? I mean, that's our insane, unwell, our narco-libertarian president, Javier Miele, who-- I mean, he met with him, and I think it was in the financial times he published an op at saying that he wanted to allow for completely AI-ran corporations to be chartered inside of Argentina. Just like-- again, AI-powered companies. So Peter Teal, I think, just picked a developing country under the thumb of the IMF that's being treated as a colony of global capital to experiment with these free market interventions, right? But I don't know if you saw, though, a group of Gandalf's people dressed as Gandalf's went to the spouse to protest him. So people are angry about it. People are getting frustrated with this experiment on with libertarianism in Argentina that's just been an absolute disaster. And hopefully, next year is a presidential election there. Hopefully, we kick this guy out of office on shortly after Kick Peter Teal, too. So before we go, I just want something, because everyone needs an action item. Because if we just sit here and we talk about it, that helps a little bit, but you need something to do. In your opinion, what do you think is the best way for an average person to fight ICE legally? I mean, if you're in Florida, contact the Florida immigrant coalition, contact me on Instagram, or whatever, or get involved with us. I mean, we're not just one organization, also, we're a coalition, we're 50 organizations, including labor unions, faith organizations, service providers, legal organizations, grassroots organizations, university groups, et cetera. So there's a lot to pick from, if you get involved with us, not just us, but aside from that, I think it just starts with finding a political home. If there's no group in your area or you just completely don't feel represented, then go ahead and start your own. But more than likely, there is a place that you can volunteer, whether it's a known profit or a labor union, or DSA, or whatever it is. I think you can find somewhere where you'll meet like-minded people, where you can all road together towards a share objective. Because obviously, DHS is a giant octopus. It's a Titanic organization that's fastly funded and has a lot of resources, and no lone wolves here. No lone heroes are going to take it down. We have to unite and, again, form political organizations that can affect outcomes. Thank you so much for talking to me, buddy. If you want to check out the Florida Immigrant Coalition and what they're doing over there on Instagram, it's F-L Immigrant. And Tomas, go check out Tomas on Instagram. He's reporting. He's on the ground, literally. He's filming people in his neighborhood. He's getting detained. So go follow him as well. Tomas, T-O-M-A-S-K-E-N-N on Instagram to stay abreast to everything that's going on. Thank you so much for talking to me, and thank you so much for just being you, man. I appreciate the hell out of you. Thank you for taking care of my home. I miss it and I can't wait to come back there and maybe hopefully live there again one day. You're the man. I hope you run for office. Oh, thank you. Come visit on the summer drink. I will. February, I'll see you. I'm going to cruise out of Florida, though. I'll be there. Well, that was a hoot and a hay, huh? We had a good time. Lots of laughs. Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine. I appreciate everyone coming in and listening and watching side stories. I like doing these follow-up episodes because I feel like with knowledge, it should never end. You know, you're never an expert on anything. So always keep learning about what is happening, about things. Stay up to date on them. And so I'm glad that we stayed up to date on what's going on in Florida with the immigration community. Follow and get involved with the Florida immigrant coalition. Follow Tomas on Instagram, Tomas Ken, and Kurt Bronohol around Instagram. Go see Kurt Live. Kurt's one of the greatest comedians I've ever known. He's so funny. He's-- I don't take today as an audition for Kurt's comedy. You know, is this-- he goes see him live. If he's coming to your town, you're going to have the best silliest time. I adore that, man. Go check him out. Do you want to see me on the road? I'm going to be in DC on September 11th and 12th. Going to be fun. Hopefully they won't kill me for this episode when I'm in town. I'm then going to be in Milwaukee on September 27th. Denver, the comedy works downtown on October 4th. Then San Francisco, a cops comedy club, October 25th. And then a whole bunch of dates with side stories. I'm going to be in Nashville in January. I'm going to be a Rochester in January. That's a long way off. All kinds of stuff is coming out. Go to editunes.com. If you want to see me on the road, I got all my dates on there, all side stories, dates on there. Go come see us live. I'm having the best time in the world. Go and check out everything that's going on here at the last podcast network. We have such amazing shows. I feel such honor to be involved with this network with such amazing human beings. Page seven, spun the brighter side, Nerd of Mouth, the foreign report, fraudsters. So some of the greatest shows. We have so much going on under our umbrella. LPN TV is crushing it right now. Go watch the last season of HGX2 if you get a chance. Vampire, the masquerades going strong, bloodblath, 77. This fucking network is the shit. Be involved in it. Let us take over your brains. I love you. Be good to yourselves. And hail, Tomas Kennedy. Peace. [BLANK_AUDIO]