Florida makes one thing absolutely clear after Obama judge orders teardown of Alligator Alcatraz



An Obama judge issued an injunction on Thursday ordering Florida not only to halt the arrival of new detainees to Alligator Alcatraz but to begin dismantling the facility.

The Sunshine State isn't rolling over, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' office indicated that President Donald Trump's deportation campaign will continue as planned.

Quick background

After DeSantis tasked state leaders with identifying places for a new detention facility to temporarily house outbound criminal noncitizens, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier made a public pitch in favor of "Alligator Alcatraz" — "an old, virtually abandoned airport facility" in the Everglades that could serve as "the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda."

Uthmeier got his way, confirming in June that the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport would indeed become home to America's first state-run facility for federal immigration detainees — a facility that the Department of Homeland Security told Blaze News would ultimately house up to 5,000 beds for illegal aliens in soft and hardened structures.

Within weeks, the airport's 10,499-foot runway was crowded with tents and unsavory characters set for deportation.

As with virtually all effective initiatives related to the detention and deportation of criminal noncitizens, Alligator Alcatraz's development was challenged by liberal activists.

RELATED: Florida sheriff: Feds are running out of space because we're arresting so many illegal aliens

Blaze Media illustration. Note: This is a Blaze Media illustration, not the actual facility.

One of the legal efforts to shut down the camp was launched on June 27 by two environmental groups, Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity.

According to the plaintiffs, Alligator Alcatraz was being operated in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental review processes in cases of federal actions that significantly impact the environment — processes the environmentalists claim had not been undertaken.

Florida Division of Emergency Management Deputy Director Keith Pruett pointed out that the environmentalists' concerns were overblown and that the airport was already active, permanently lit — one of the environmentalists concern-mongered about possible light pollution — and home to existing buildings.

The lawsuit further alleged that Florida's involvement in the project through the Florida Division of Emergency Management exceeded the agency's authority and that Miami-Dade County unlawfully permitted the use of the airport as a detention facility.

Obama judge weighs in

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams made clear in her 82-page order on Thursday that she was persuaded neither by the Trump administration's argument that "the significant national interest in combating unlawful immigration favors allowing Florida to continue the development and use of [the detention camp]" nor by Florida's assertion that the facility was necessary because other facilities are at capacity.

Williams, an Obama appointee, suggested that the perceived need for Alligator Alcatraz "fails to explicate the decision to place the detention camp in the Everglades."

'We're going to continue to do what we need to do to help the Trump administration remove illegal aliens from our country.'

Having ordered a temporary pause weeks earlier, Williams formally barred both the Trump administration and state officials from installing any additional lighting at the facility; undertaking any expansion efforts, including erecting additional tents or buildings; and bringing any new detainees to the site.

Her order allows, however, for modification or repairs to existing facilities if executed for the sole purpose of "increasing safety or mitigating environmental or other risks at the site."

The Obama judge further ordered Florida and the Trump administration to dismantle the temporary fencing, lighting fixtures, generators, and waste receptacles installed to support the project within 60 days.

RELATED: Trump and the left join forces to herd Democrats into a 2028 disaster

Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

"Every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades," wrote Williams. "This Order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises."

Friends of the Everglades celebrated the ruling.

Eve Samples, executive director of the group, stated, "This decision sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government — and there are consequences for ignoring them."

Florida fights back

DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Blaze News, "This ruling from an activist judge ignores the fact that this land has already been developed for a decade. It is another attempt to prevent the president from fulfilling the American people’s mandate to remove the worst of the worst, including gang members, murderers, pedophiles, terrorists, and rapists, from our country."

"This activist judge doesn’t care about the invasion of our country facilitated by the Biden administration, but the American people do," continued McLaughlin. "We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

Florida has appealed the order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

DeSantis told Fox News he knew the "fix was in" and that Williams "was not giving us a fair shake."

"We totally expected an adverse ruling," said DeSantis. "And we also knew we were going to immediately appeal and get that decision stayed. So we will ultimately be successful in this. It's not going to stop our resolve. We're going to continue to do what we need to do to help the Trump administration remove illegal aliens from our country. You know, that's the mandate that they have. So we anticipated this, but I don't think it's going to be insurmountable in the end."

Blaze News has reached out to DeSantis' office for further comment.

While the fate of Alligator Alcatraz is up in the air, DeSantis' office made clear that there's no slowing down the deportation train.

Alex Lanfranconi, DeSantis' communications director, noted, "The deportations will continue until morale improves."

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Sanctuary cities on DOJ's list set to reap the whirlwind



The Trump Department of Justice published on Monday a list of American states, cities, and counties that can expect or are already fighting legal action over sanctuary policies and laws that serve to undermine or prevent the execution of immigration law enforcement.

"Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design," said Attorney General Pam Bondi. "The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country."

'Nevada is not a sanctuary state and will never be a sanctuary jurisdiction under Governor Lombardo.'

Among the 18 cities listed are Albuquerque, New Mexico; Berkeley, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California.

Blaze News has reached out for comment to mayors of all of the cities on the DOJ's list.

Four counties have so far been singled out: Baltimore County, Maryland; Cook County, Illinois; San Diego County, California; and San Francisco County, California.

The following states are also on the list: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The District of Columbia is also identified as an offending "state."

RELATED: Wyoming joins forces with ICE to address illegal immigration crisis

Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

The DOJ indicated that each state, county, and city listed will have a chance to respond to its placement on the list.

Joe Lombardo, the Republican governor of Nevada, railed against his state's inclusion on the list.

His office stated, "Nevada is not a sanctuary state and will never be a sanctuary jurisdiction under Governor Lombardo. At Governor Lombardo's direction, Nevada has followed all federal laws and cooperated with federal immigration authorities, and the state will continue to do so."

In addition to declarations of sanctuary status and the implementation of laws, regulations, resolutions, or other formalized practices that obstruct ICE or limit local cooperation with federal authorities, jurisdictions can land on the DOJ's list for:

  • prohibiting the use of local funds or resources to support federal immigration efforts;
  • providing training to employees and police on enforcing sanctuary policies and refusing to respond to ICE requests for information;
  • refusing to honor ICE detainer requests;
  • restricting ICE agents' ability to speak to detainees without the illegal aliens' consent;
  • the establishment of "dedicated offices to engage and advise illegal alien communities on evading federal law enforcement officers"; and
  • helping illegal aliens unlawfully exploit federally funded citizen benefits.

The DOJ's list was published pursuant to President Donald Trump's April 28 executive order titled "Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens," which required the attorney general both to publish a list of obstructionist jurisdictions and states and to "notify each sanctuary jurisdiction regarding its defiance of Federal immigration law enforcement and any potential violations of Federal criminal law."

RELATED: Florida sheriff: Feds are running out of space because we're arresting so many illegal aliens

Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images

New York City, which is on the new list, was slapped with a lawsuit last month that provides some sense of the approach that may be taken with the other jurisdictions.

The government accused New York City of violating the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and requested the sanctuary policies' invalidation.

"New York City's Sanctuary Provisions have the purpose and effect of making it more difficult for federal immigration officers to carry out their responsibilities in that jurisdiction," said the government's complaint. "This intentional sabotage of federal immigration enforcement is unlawful and dangerous."

The lawsuit also highlighted the fallout of New York City Democrats' sanctuary policies.

It noted, for instance, that the two illegal aliens who allegedly shot an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in the face on July 19 were "repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior" but shielded from consequence and deportation.

After one of the two suspects was arrested for fourth-degree felony grand larceny and petit larceny in April, the New York City Department of Correction cut him loose, ignoring an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, as it had with 96% of ICE detainer requests last year.

Refusals to honor ICE detainers have played a major role in the avoidable loss of American life in recent years.

'The stakes are too high.'

For instance, in July 2024, an illegal alien from Honduras with at least one assault and battery conviction to his name was arrested for allegedly beating a Virginia man to death. A judge ordered the Honduran national, Maudin Anibal Guzman-Videz, deported in 2019, and in subsequent years, ICE reportedly filed multiple immigration detainers against him with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center; however, the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office reportedly failed to honor the detainers.

RELATED: 9 times sanctuary policies and a lax approach to illegal immigration endangered American lives

Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

The pressure applied by the Trump DOJ has already prompted some changes of heart, including in Louisville, Kentucky, which recently appeared on a Department of Homeland Security list of sanctuary jurisdictions defying federal immigration law — a list far longer that the DOJ's, with over 600 municipalities named and shamed.

Bondi announced on July 22 that the City of Louisville, Kentucky, was dropping its sanctuary policies "as a result of a strong written warning from my office."

Mayor Craig Greenberg noted that his city made the list because of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections' practice of providing the DHS with only five to 12 hours before releasing an inmate who has an ICE detainer. Prior to 2017, Metro Corrections would provide 48 hours' notice.

"Metro Corrections will begin honoring 48-hour federal detainers as soon as practical because the stakes are too high," wrote Greenberg. "In turn, Louisville will no longer be considered a 'sanctuary city' by the federal government. This change in designation is critical."

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Appeals court's decision in Trump's birthright citizenship case sets up HISTORIC battle before Supreme Court



President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship." The order, which was set to go into effect on July 27, made it U.S. policy not to issue citizenship documents to a person whose mother was unlawfully in the country and whose father was neither an American citizen nor a permanent resident at the time of the person's birth.

Liberals, apparently content to cheapen citizenship by dealing it out wholesale to children born to noncitizens on American soil, filed numerous legal challenges to prevent Trump from making good on his campaign promise to end birthright citizenship.

The challengers have won the various legal battles fought to date; however, the outcome of the war over this hot-button issue will likely be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in short order owing to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Wednesday ruling, which upheld a nationwide pause on the enforcement of the policy.

'This is still at a preliminary stage — not a ruling yet on the merits.'

On Jan. 21, the states of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington filed a lawsuit in the U.S District Court for the Western District of Washington claiming that the executive order violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act. The complaint advanced by Democratic state attorneys general suggested further that Trump lacks the authority to determine who should and should not be granted American citizenship at birth.

In a move of the kind that the U.S. Supreme Court would later claim likely exceeds the equitable authority given to federal courts by Congress, Seattle-based U.S. District Judge John Coughenour granted a universal injunction, blocking the law's implementation.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruled 2-1 on Wednesday to keep in place Coughenour's injunction.

The two judges in the 9th Circuit majority were both appointed by Bill Clinton. The lone dissenting judge was a Trump appointee who said the states had no legal right to bring the case.

RELATED: 'Game of whack-a-mole': Leftists have new favorite way to block MAGA agenda — without universal injunctions

Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images

Ronald Gould, one of the Clinton judges, noted in the majority opinion, "We conclude that the Executive Order is invalid because it contradicts the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment's grant of citizenship to 'all persons born in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'''

Gould wrote further that the "district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a universal injunction in order to give the States complete relief" and that the "universal preliminary injunction is necessary to give the States complete relief on their claims."

The appeals court declined to tackle the individual plaintiffs' claims as they are already covered by a class action in the case Barbara v. Trump.

On July 10, a U.S. district judge in New Hampshire granted class action status to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging Trump's order, certifying the babies of illegal aliens and temporary migrants as a class.

Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee, then issued a preliminary injunction in Barbara, temporarily shielding the supposed class from the order's enforcement.

Although Laplante paused his decision to allow for the Trump administration to appeal, absent such an appeal, his order has reportedly gone into effect.

Dr. John C. Eastman, founding director of the Claremont Institute's Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, told Blaze News that "the 9th Circuit decision is still only a preliminary decision, affirming a nationwide preliminary injunction for the States, which it found to have standing. Both of those parts of the decision are somewhat in tension with the Supreme Court’s decision on June 27 in the CASA case, but not entirely foreclosed by it."

'Those born to parents who did not agree to abide by U.S. laws are not citizens.'

"I suspect we’ll see if a request for stay filed with the Supreme Court in short order," continued Eastman. "But again, this is still at a preliminary stage — not a ruling yet on the merits, only on the 'likelihood' of the merits."

In contrast, Gerald L. Neuman, the J. Sinclair Armstrong professor of international, foreign, and comparative law at Harvard Law School, suggested the 9th Circuit Court's ruling "is clearly correct."

"As the opinion explained, the meaning of the Citizenship Clause is well-settled, and Congress shared that understanding when it adopted the INA in 1952," Neuman told Blaze News. "The dissenting judge on the panel did not disagree with this conclusion on the merits of the case, but raised procedural objections to the court’s ability to make its decision in the case before it."

Should the Supreme Court rule in the challengers' favor, Neuman indicated it "might base its decision directly on the constitutional provision, or on the statute, or on both."

RELATED: 'Complete madness': Court blocks Trump's birthright citizenship policy with universal injunction by another name

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

When asked about the significance of this case, law professor Gregory Germain of the Syracuse University College of Law told Blaze News, "I doubt that any of these lower court cases will be significant because I believe the Supreme Court will ultimately take the case and settle the question."

"I disagree with the 9th Circuit that the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause is clear on its face," said Germain. "The clause on its face contains a limitation on birthright citizenship, requiring that the child be 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the U.S. Why was that language put in the Constitution if it was intended to be meaningless? So that language means something — the issue is what it means."

Germain noted that the Supreme Court held in the case U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark that:

children born to permanent residents were subject to the jurisdiction of the United States even though the parents were citizens of China. But the Court also held that children of foreign soldiers occupying U.S. land or diplomats (or Indians) were not "subject to the jurisdiction" and not citizens. So the Court recognized that there were some exceptions to birthright citizenship, but did not clearly define them.

The Syracuse University law professor opined that it would be "perfectly rational" to say that children born on American soil to parents who have agreed to abide by American laws are citizens but "those born to parents who did not agree to abide by U.S. laws are not citizens."

Germain said that would be "consistent with Ark, because the parents were permanent residents who agreed to abide by U.S. law to obtain that status, and would rationally distinguish foreign soldiers and diplomats (both of whom are subject to U.S. law in many circumstances, even though they never agreed to abide), but also illegal aliens."

By adopting this approach, German indicated that the Supreme Court would have to "split the baby, so to speak, on Trump's executive order": Kids born to foreign nationals who are legally in the country and who agreed in visa applications to abide by American law would qualify, but children of aliens illegally in the country would not qualify for citizenship.

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'Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide': Florida will have 'Alligator Alcatraz' for illegal aliens up and running in days



The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration could restart deportations of illegal aliens to countries not their own. While this decision will speed up the mass deportation process, there remains a need for detention facilities.

To help satisfy this need, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) tasked state leaders with identifying places for a new facility. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier evidently had a good spot in mind.

Last week, Uthmeier made a public pitch in favor of "Alligator Alcatraz" — "an old, virtually abandoned airport facility" in the Everglades that could serve as "the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda."

The state attorney general noted that the 39-square-mile area, which "is completely surrounded by the Everglades," presents an "efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out and there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons — nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."

Uthmeier confirmed Monday that Alligator Alcatraz is a go.

The Department of Homeland Security told Blaze News that the Florida Division of Emergency Management will build a facility on the location that will house up to 5,000 beds for illegal aliens.

RELATED: Illegal alien suspected of wielding weed whacker at ICE agents is called a 'father' and 'victim' by local outlet

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Florida law enforcement officers who capture under the 287(G) program — a program delegating specific immigration enforcement authority to state and local officers under the Immigration and Nationality Act — can dump detainees off at Alligator Alcatraz. ICE will similarly be able to transfer aliens to the Florida facility under 287(g) authority.

The DHS anticipates that the facility will be functional in a matter of days, initially with 500 to 1,000 beds, but ultimately 5,000 beds by early July, following expansions in several 500-bed increments.

Authorities might ultimately build hardened structures on the site, but for the time being, Alligator Alcatraz will largely be a tented destination.

While illegal aliens sweat it out in the soft-sided structures, Florida Division of Emergency Management workers will be housed in old Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers that have apparently been renovated.

'I'm proud to help support President Trump and Secretary Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all.'

"Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to Blaze News. "We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."

RELATED: Judge orders release of Kilmar Garcia — but DHS vows that 'he will never go free on American soil'

Image (left): Department of Homeland Security; Photo (right): Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Noem noted further that the new facilities "will in large part be funded by FEMA's Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden Administration used as a piggy bank to spend hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars to house illegal aliens, including at the Roosevelt Hotel that served as a Tren de Aragua base of operations that was used to shelter Laken Riley’s killer."

According to the DHS, the approximate cost of running the facility will be $245 per bed per day and an annual cost of $450 million. Florida will initially foot the bill but later receive reimbursement from FEMA, which has roughly $625 million in Shelter and Services Program funds available for this effort.

"I'm proud to help support President Trump and Secretary Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all," stated Uthmeier. "Alligator Alcatraz and other Florida facilities will do just that."

Hundreds of protesters traveled to the site of the future detention facility on Sunday to protest its construction, reported WGCU-TV. Their concerns largely appeared to be tied up with the potential environmental impact of the facility on supposedly "sacred" land.

Illegal immigrant advocates have similarly criticized the proposed facility albeit for difference reasons.

For instance, Mark Fleming, the associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, told the New York Times that the move amounted to an "independent, unaccountable detention system."

"The fact that the administration and its allies would even consider such a huge temporary facility," said Fleming, "on such a short timeline, with no obvious plan for how to adequately staff medical and other necessary services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there."

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Dems' favorite MS-13 associate ran human trafficking operations, says ex-boss



Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), and Maxine Dexter (Ore.) are among the Democratic lawmakers who decided to champion the cause of MS-13 associate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national the Trump administration sent packing on March 15.

Abrego Garcia's illegal entry into the U.S., his failure to appear for hearings on traffic violations, the domestic abuse allegations lodged against him, his links to a terrorist gang, and his identification by two immigration courts as a danger to the community were likely already cause enough to justify his deportation and to question his Democratic defenders' judgment. However, more damning information has come to light.

In the wake of the Tennessee Star's publication of footage showing Abrego Garcia's Nov. 30, 2022, encounter with Tennessee Highway Patrol and confirmation of the Department of Justice's investigation into the traffic stop, ABC News reported that the Salvadoran's boss has outed him as an human trafficker.

The traffic stop

Tennessee Highway Patrol reportedly pulled over Abrego Garcia in November 2022 for driving erratically, which he was reportedly doing without a valid license.

'He's getting paid to haul these people.'

The THP officer surmised from the MS-13 associate's human cargo and lack of luggage that Abrego Garcia — then on a terrorist watch list but not on a deportation list — was engaged in human trafficking.

One officer said in the video obtained by the Tennessee Star, "He's hauling these people for money. You've got an ICE hauler, is what he's doing. Sometimes they come in with dope."

"There's eight people in there," continued the officer. "He's getting paid to haul these people, probably to Maryland, I would say, if I had to guess."

— (@)

Tennessee Highway Patrol notified the Biden FBI, which told the officers to take pictures of Abrego Garcia and his seven passengers, then cut them loose.

While Abrego Garcia got to drive away with just a warning, he did so only after materially and verbally linking himself to a convicted human trafficker.

The black 2001 Chevrolet Silverado that Abrego Garcia was driving was reportedly flagged by the Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore field office as belonging to Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes — an illegal alien from Mexico who Abrego Garcia told a state trooper was his boss.

Hernandez-Reyes pleaded guilty on June 4, 2020, to smuggling illegal aliens. He was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, then deported, though he stole back into the U.S. sometime later and was eventually rearrested.

Abrego Garcia outed

Federal investigators looking into Abrego Garcia's 2022 traffic stop recently spoke with Hernandez-Reyes at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.

Hernandez-Reyes, who was granted limited immunity, told investigators he ran a "taxi service" based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Mexican national reportedly indicated that he met Abrego Garcia in 2015 and hired him on multiple occasions to smuggle illegal aliens from Texas to other places in the country.

Hernandez-Reyes previously told authorities that he would smuggle people throughout the U.S. for $350 per person. In the bodycam footage of the 2022 traffic stop obtained by the Tennessee Star, Abrego Garcia is said to have $1,400 in cash on his person.

ABC News indicated that the DOJ declined to comment.

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DOD has captured alien craft? Bombshell report from congressional whistleblower alleges decades-long cover-up



Congressional lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee held a joint subcommittee hearing Wednesday to discuss alleged secret government investigations into UFOs — now called unidentified anomalous phenomena — and the knowledge obtained from the inquiry.

During the hearing, Michael Shellenberger, a publisher of the Twitter Files and co-founder of the "Public" newsletter on Substack, shared some shocking claims from a government whistleblower about an alleged special access program at the Defense Department called "Immaculate Constellation. "

Shellenberger noted in his written testimony that existing and former government officials have notified members of Congress that notwithstanding suggestions to the contrary, the Pentagon has kept a "significant body of information about UAPs, including military intelligence databases that have evidence of their existence as physical craft," under wraps.

One unnamed whistleblower submitted a report to Congress through the UAP whistleblower mechanisms established by the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, detailing the nature of the alleged Immaculate Constellation project.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) published that report this week.

Shellenberger acknowledged that DOD spokesperson Susan Gough indicated last month the "Department of Defense has no record, present or historical" of Immaculate Constellation.

However, the journalist said that a source subsequently notified him that Immaculate Constellation, apparently created after the New York Times reported in 2017 on a similar program called the Advance Aerospace Threat Identification Program, is "controlled by the White House and executed and administered by the DOD to avoid compliance with Title 10 of the United States Code."

A former intelligence community official reportedly told Shellenberger's Public that Immaculate Constellation "is run out of SEC DEF," adding, "They don't want to acknowledge it's real."

'The F-22 pilot noted multiple metallic orbs — slightly smaller than a sedan — hovering in place.'

The whistleblower report alleges at the outset that "elements of the U.S. Executive Branch have conspired to prevent the U.S. Legislative Branch from exercising its lawful powers of governance with respect to the UAP, [Technologies of Unknown Origin], and [Non-Human Intelligence] issues."

While the allegation of a criminal conspiracy might itself be newsworthy, what is more interesting is the conclusion drawn in the report:

The official disclosure of the existence of Non-Human Intelligences (NHIs) and their presence on Earth is a pivotal moment in human history. The nature of this information is of such incomparable relevance to the public good that it demands to be shared. Some may object and say that disclosure at this time poses too many risks. To them it must be said that we will never be able to predict how individuals, families, communities, and nations will react to revelations of such magnitude. Moving forward, we must guard against the lure of authoritarian solution justified by expediency and appeals to national security. The Good in humanity will always triumph through time, and it is in moments of crisis that our capacities for achieving the extraordinary are discovered. Be not afraid.

According to the whistleblower, who Shellenberger has indicated "discovered this material accidentally," Immaculate Constellation collects high-quality imagery intelligence on UAPs in low earth orbit, the upper atmosphere, maritime environments, and at military aviation altitude and "acts as a nexus for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence on the activities, capabilities, and locations of anomalous aerospace threats that originate from foreign or unidentified sources."

The report details multiple alleged UFO sightings, some of which were apparently captured by high-powered sensors and others that were documented by military personnel.

There is, for instance, allegedly infrared and full-motion video daytime footage of roughly 12 "metallic orbs skimming the ocean surface at high speed before dispersing in multiple directions" and maneuvering with rapidity and agility "incompatible with known aerospace vehicles."

The metallic orbs apparently flew in a tight "cuboid" formation, creating the illusion of a cube at a distance. The sensor platform reportedly lost sight of most of the UAPs when they ascended and accelerated.

UAPs reported from 1991 to 2022 in one alleged Immaculate Constellation dataset varied in shape and size and included spheres, saucers, ovals, arrowheads, and irregular or organic shapes. The report catalogues various descriptions and properties recorded for each of the various vehicle types.

The whistleblower indicated that Immaculate Constellation also has plenty of intelligence obtained from human sources as well. One account highlighted in the report claims that metallic orbs intercepted an F-22 fighter jet that was conducting a routine surveillance and control mission.

"An F-22 fighter observed multiple UAP contacts at mission-altitude," said the report. "Moving to intercept, the F-22 pilot noted multiple metallic orbs — slightly smaller than a sedan — hovering in place. Upon vectoring towards the UAPs, a smaller formation of the metallic orbs accelerated at rapid speed towards the F-22, which was unable to establish radar locks on the presumed-hostile UAPs."

The report noted that when the fighter jet attempted to flee, it was "intercepted and boxed in by approximately 3-6 UAPs. One UAP maneuvered in proximity (>12 meters) to the area directly starboard of the cockpit; there the UAP established a rigid spatial relationship with the F-22, maintaining its exact position and orientation parallel with the F-22's cockpit despite multiple evasive rolls and maneuvers."

Ultimately, the orbs reportedly escorted the fighter jet out of the mission area.

According to the whistleblower report, other countries are aware of UAP events and take them deadly seriously, especially since the unidentified objects have an apparent tendency to fly over sensitive military and intelligence facilities.

Earlier this year, the DOD's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office released a report claiming no governmental evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

"All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification," said the report. "Although not the focus of this report, it is worthwhile to note that all official foreign UAP investigatory efforts to date have reached the same general conclusions as USG investigations."

The AARO report noted, "Although many UAP reports remain unsolved or unidentified, AARO assesses that if more and better quality data were available, most of these cases also could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena."

Shellenberger said that the American government "appears to know significantly more about UAPs than it is revealing. But even those who believe the U.S. government has revealed all that it knows should have no objection to congressional demands for greater transparency."

Mace emphasized, "The American people have every right to know what is really happening."

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Do The ‘Alien’ Franchise’s Anti-Corporate Themes Still Work 45 Years Later?

[rebelmouse-proxy-image https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.41.41 PM-1200x675.png crop_info="%7B%22image%22%3A%20%22https%3A//thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.41.41%5Cu202fPM-1200x675.png%22%7D" expand=1]'Alien: Romulus' transports the same concepts and ideas from a 45-year-old horror film into a modern context without much unpacking.

Rhode Island cuts loose an illegal alien charged with raping a mentally handicapped person



Despite the failure of Democratic lawmakers to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering schools, hospitals, and courthouses without a judicial warrant, Rhode Island is still effectively a sanctuary state, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

At the very least, the Ocean State — whose capital is a sanctuary city — will not hold a person in custody on the basis of an ICE detainer alone, Democratic Gov. Dan McKee confirmed in a Feb. 22 statement.

On Feb. 28, the Providence Police Department arrested an illegal alien from Guatemala wanted on first-degree child molestation, rape, and domestic abuse charges. Despite ICE lodging an immigration detainer against the accused child rapist, the Sixth District Court of Rhode Island reportedly cut him loose before Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston officers could take custody.

Fortunately, ICE was able to nab him on April 10 before he could victimize more residents in the state.

"This unlawfully present individual was arrested locally on first degree child molestation charges and was released back into the community despite an immigration detainer," said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. "We believe it is in the interest of the community that jurisdictions honor our immigration detainers so that ICE can take direct custody of individuals like this who pose a threat to residents."

Days later, it looked as though Rhode Island may have taken Lyons' suggestion to heart.

A child rapist from Guatemala, in the U.S. illegally, was arrested in 2018 then convicted of first-degree child molestation/sexual assault in 2022. Despite receiving a 25-year prison sentence, his sentence was reduced to six years. Prior to his release, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections notified ICE, enabling ERO Boston to prevent him from returning to "our Rhode Island neighborhoods to re-offend."

The days of such cooperation were evidently short-lived.

'This is not the type of individual we want walking the streets of our New England neighborhoods.'

Rigberto Hoyos-Alban, a 33-year-old Colombian national who stole across the southern border near Rio Grande Valley, Texas, in November 2023, was arrested by the Central Falls Police Department in Rhode Island on March 13 and charged with two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree rape, and one count of felony assault on a person mentally impaired, according to ICE.

Once again, deportation officers from ERO Boston's Providence field office lodged an immigration detainer — this time with the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute on March 14 — and once again the ICE detainer was not honored.

The prison cut Hoyos-Alban loose, enabling the alleged rapist to roam the land for over two months.

ICE officers finally caught up to the Colombian in Cranston on May 22.

"Rigberto Hoyos-Alban has been charged with four couts [sic] of sexual assault and one count of assault aganst [sic] a person with a severe mental handicap," Lyons said in a statement. "This is not the type of individual we want walking the streets of our New England neighborhoods."

Lyons added that ERO Boston will "continue to prioritize the safety of our public by apprehending and removing violent noncitizens from our communities."

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Alleged alien remains presented to Mexican Congress in 'unsubstantiated stunt' likely the same fakes previously identified as 'recently manufactured dolls'



Self-described ufologist José Jaime Maussan presented a pair of caskets to Mexico's Congress Tuesday containing what he claimed were the remains of extraterrestrials. Under oath, Maussan suggested that the figures supposedly discovered in Peru in 2017, "were not mummies" and had "not been manipulated." What's more, he claimed they were "non-human beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution."

While entertaining, the news of potential dead aliens — which coincidentally broke the day of House Republicans' announcement of a forthcoming impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden — left many scientists skeptical and for good reason.

It appears this close encounter of a third kind is likely a second encounter with an older fraud.

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Far-out claims

The coffins that Maussan presented to Mexican lawmakers contained a pair of chalky humanoid figures with elongated heads, pie-shaped faces, sandy complexions, and protruding sternums.

Maussan, linked to a previously debunked claim that the mummy of a human child was alien in nature, claimed Tuesday that the figures had been found in algae mines and together constituted the "queen of all evidence. ... That is, if the DNA is showing us that they are non-human beings and that there is nothing that looks like this in the world, we should take it as such."

The Independent reported that Maussan further alleged the figures had been studied by scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where radiocarbon dating was used to draw DNA evidence.

José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, a forensic expert and military doctor, discussed supposed scans of the figures during the hearing and detailed their physiology, reported NPR.

Benítez, who served as lead researcher on Maussan's previosuly debunked body discovery, claimed the figures had retractable necks, big brains, and big eyes, "which allowed for a wide stereoscopic vision." Additionally, on the basis of the figure's lack of teeth, the military doctor suggested the figures neither drank nor chewed.

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While former Navy fighter pilot Ryan Graves, executive director of the Americans for Safe Aerospace organization, also spoke before the Mexican Congress Tuesday, he has since attempted to distance himself from the hearing following Maussan's carnivalesque presentation.

Graves wrote on X, "Yesterday’s demonstration was a huge step backwards for this issue. My testimony centered on sharing my experience and the UAP reports I hear from commercial and military aircrew through ASA’s witness program. I will continue to raise awareness of UAP as an urgent matter of aerospace safety, national security, and science, but I am deeply disappointed by this unsubstantiated stunt."

Grave robbers, posthumous butchery, and fakes

According to the Associated Press, these particular figures appear to be the same or at least of the same make purportedly found buried beneath the sandy Peruvian coastal desert of Nazca, about which Maussan previously made claims similar to those he volunteered Tuesday before the Mexican Congress.

The last time around, Peru's prosecutor's office determined the figures were in fact "recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin."

The Peruvian prosecutor's office further indicated that the figurines were almost certainly human-made and not "the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present."

Live Science reported in 2018 that the three-fingered mummies passed off as aliens were likely the result of a "combination of the looting and manipulation of real human mummy parts," with a white coating added afterward to conceal the manipulations.

A dozen Peruvian mummy researchers denounced the manufacture of the apparent fakes, claiming their production using human remains "violated numerous national and international norms."

Guido Lombardi, a professor of forensic sciences at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, told Live Science, "I particularly find repulsive that anyone would [dare] to dehumanize deceased human bodies. You can't take away the condition of human to a human being!"

While Maussan suggested in his testimony that the National Autonomous University of Mexico backed up his claims, it appears this claim was also a stretch.

The Associated Press reported that Julieta Fierro, a researcher at the institution, made clear that Maussan's assertion that the university endorsed his so-called discovery was false.

"Maussan has done many things. He says he has talked to the Virgin of Guadalupe," said Fierro. "He told me extraterrestrials do not talk to me like they talk to him because I don’t believe in them."

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