Politics & Government

The scene outside the Arsht Center last night was, predictably, a circus. As part one of the 20-candidate Democratic presidential debates got underway, the Proud Boys, a Q-Anon guy, and several proud “deplorables” mingled with Twitter castaway Laura Loomer on one side of Biscayne Boulevard. On the other side stood the Miami Democratic Socialists of America, climate activists in swim goggles, “Hands Off Venezuela” folks, and a guy with a sign comparing abortion to the Holocaust.

Months before President Donald Trump announced plans for massive immigration raids, members of his administration were busy cooking up plans to deport asylum-seeking families released into the U.S. Their solution? Create special expedited dockets for newly arrived families in ten immigration courts in cities including Miami, Houston, San Francisco, and Chicago.

A subset of workers at Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport — two of the largest economic engines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties — announced this morning that they will go on strike to demand better wages and working conditions at their respective airports.

A whole lot of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are visiting the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children this week. Not all of them, however, appear to have concrete plans of action as to what to do about the kids inside the shelter. But during a visit today, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a straightforward demand: Shut the place down.

Thirty miles south of the stage where Democratic candidates will appear for this week’s presidential debates, thousands of children are being held in the country’s only unlicensed, privately run shelter for immigrant kids. At the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, some have described crying themselves to sleep or worrying they might never be released.

Over the last few weeks, lawyers have reported harrowing stories of alleged neglect, health hazards, and abuse inside the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, the largest child-migrant compound run by the Trump administration. Attorneys claimed bathrooms were covered in mildew.

Hope gave way to further disillusionment last week for a group of exiled Venezuelans living in Miami, as word surfaced that the Trump administration’s interest in the crisis-stricken country was reportedly waning.

In February, the Florida Democratic Party accepted a $10,000 donation from G4S Secure Solutions, a private firm that runs immigrant-detention facilities in other countries and transports American inmates between prison facilities.

This week, the Democratic Party will hold its first presidential debates, a two-day affair Wednesday and Thursday at the Adrienne Arsht Center presenting 20 candidates. And not a single one has shown they can energize voters the same way Donald Trump gasses up his racist base to go to the polls.

A new report challenges the Trump administration’s narrative that migrant families aren’t showing up to court.

The Trump era has been a gold rush for those in the business of locking up immigrants, none more so than the Boca Raton-based GEO Group. Boasting almost $500 million in contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the private-prison firm has made a pretty penny from the new war on immigrants…

President Donald Trump’s first 2020 campaign rally in Orlando last night was little more than a rehash of his 2016 greatest hits. He stood at a lectern and let various English-adjacent sentences tumble from his swollen, bass-like mouth. Various neofascist groups showed up to chant stuff outside, and TV news channels ran wall-to-wall coverage of Trump babbling and saying “fake news” over and over again.

June 26 and 27, a whopping 20 Democratic candidates for president will take the stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts just north of downtown Miami in the first debates of the 2020 election cycle. They will bicker, slam Donald Trump, and almost certainly embarrass themselves by…

Friday, June 14, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state’s deeply controversial anti-“sanctuary city” bill, SB 168, into law. He did so in the blood-red Florida Panhandle, and there were so many fans who showed up that DeSantis reportedly had to find a larger venue.

On May 30, a Palm Beach home forfeited by convicted money launderer and former national treasurer of Venezuela Alejandro Andrade was quietly auctioned off by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The home was purchased by Matthew Womble, cofounder of the Connecticut-based investment management firm EverWatch Capital.

June is Pride Month. The 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub, which occurred three years ago today, killed 49 people at an event held for gay Latino men. Yet Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — or someone in his administration — decided it was necessary this year to scrub mentions of the LGBTQ community from the state’s yearly Pulse Memorial Day proclamation.

Politician-shaped asshole Walter “Mike” Hill is a bizarre and upsetting dude. The state representative is from an extremely right-wing section of Florida — District 1 of the House, AKA the part of the Panhandle that borders Alabama on two sides.

Last month, Miami Beach’s internal auditing department completed a report vetting the city’s two major towing companies: Beach Towing and Tremont. The audit should be of great interest to residents and visitors, because the local towing industry has long been accused of malfeasance and general clownery. But the public might never see it.

Last month, the perennially dysfunctional North Miami Beach government was forced to expend time and resources to formally tell its mayor, Tony DeFillipo, not to insult Haitian people. On May 23, the other members of the city commission, including three Haitian-American politicians, voted to censure DeFillipo after he wrote on Facebook that he believed North Miami Beach had fired its former city clerk so the city’s Haitian lawmakers could “put in a person of there [sic] own heritage and do what they want!!!”

In 2016, vlogging duo Diamond and Silk became famous by making pro-Trump YouTube videos — and, coincidentally, accepted money from the Trump campaign while doing so. Now they appear to be paying back the Trump Organization by driving business to his allegedly foundering Miami-Dade County golf resort.

The federal government today announced that it’s canceling the kids’ recreation time, English classes, and even access to legal aid. Immigrant advocates warn the decision likely violates multiple federal laws. Other critics have noted that even American prisoners are afforded recreational and educational time.

This is no laughing matter. In the coming weeks, political pundits and dark-money activist groups will soon start debating drink-control regulations, licensing requirements for slushie dispensers, or added legal penalties for drink throwers — all framed as so-called “common-sense beverage-safety legislation.”