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President Donald Trump’s immigration policies haven’t been getting much attention lately. But don’t be fooled — the immigration detention industrial complex hasn’t slowed down. One infamous facility in Florida, known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” is reportedly closing. Katie Blankenship is an attorney representing immigrants across the country – including some who have been detained at “Alligator Alcatraz”. Jane talked about what she’s hearing from her clients and what you need to know about the immigrant experience in America right now.

And in headlines, former First Lady Jill Biden admits she thought President Joe Biden was having a stroke during that debate, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thinks it’s totally normal to put Trump’s face on a 250-dollar bill, and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene vacation in Costa Rica with their partners.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, May 29th, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show celebrating a continued President Donald Trump tradition, spending millions of dollars to cover stuff in gold. This time, it’s five million dollars to cover four bronze horses near the Lincoln Memorial in Goldleaf. Why? Because why not? There are no rules. [music break] On today’s show, former first lady Jill Biden admits she thought President Joe Biden was having a stroke during that debate. And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent thinks it’s totally normal to put Trump’s face on a $250 bill, but let’s start with immigration. Trump’s immigration policies haven’t been getting much attention lately, thanks in part to all of the other terrible shit this administration has been up to. But don’t be fooled, the immigration detention industrial complex hasn’t slowed down. Undocumented immigrants, DACA recipients, green card holders, and U.S. citizens alike are still being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, at least 60,000 people were in ICE detention facilities as of early April, and many of them are held in truly deplorable conditions, like in New Jersey, where ICE detainees are carrying out a hunger strike to protest the conditions at the Delaney Hall Detention Center. Advocates for the detainees shared a letter written by those on strike inside the facility with reporters on Wednesday, listing their grievances. 

[clip of unnamed advocate for ICE detainees] Food containing worms or in a state of decay, unresolved issues, particularly the bathrooms, which are terrible and inhumane conditions, ventilation problems, serious health issues. Most people have a persistent flu with phlegm that won’t go away. Many have conjunctivitis, urinary tract infections, fever and coughs, medical care issues. If you’re sick, you have to submit a request that takes two weeks to be answered or you never get a response at all. 

Jane Coaston: These conditions are not limited to Delaney Hall. One infamous facility in Florida, known as Alligator Alcatraz, is reportedly in the process of closing down. The detention center was the crown jewel of Trump’s immigration regime, costing an estimated $1.2 million per day to house thousands of people in unsanitary conditions. But that price tag may be why the facility could be closing. According to Florida officials, it’s just too expensive to operate. Katie Blankenship is an attorney representing immigrants across the country. Including some who’ve been detained at Alligator Alcatraz. We talked about the experiences of her clients and what you’re not hearing about the immigrant experience in America right now. Katie, welcome back to What a Day. 

Katie Blankenship: It’s great to be back. Thanks so much. 

Jane Coaston: There have been reports that Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious ICE detention facility in the Florida Everglades is preparing to close. When we spoke with you the last time, you had clients who were detained there. What have you been hearing from them? 

Katie Blankenship: Um, the rumors are true that there are rumors. 

Jane Coaston: Okay. 

Katie Blankenship: Um, there are folks inside who are noticing, I spoke with somebody there yesterday, he confirmed that in his area, you know, they’re in these cages, right? And they’re broken up in separate tents and certain cages and his tent and his area of the cages, they had decreased down to, he thought about 150 people yesterday, it was around 300ish. Um. We’ve also heard from Maxwell Frost’s office. Maxwell Frost went in and saw signs that they were breaking down. Now the on the other hand, uh we have Markwayne Mullin saying the exact opposite of Ron DeSantis about a week ago. And I think we talked about last time, Sanctuary of the South is a plaintiff in a case called HCR versus Noem. It’s about the First Amendment right’s access to counsel, and how they were blocked at the facility. The federal government, the federal defendants just filed an appeal. It’s like two days ago. So why are they why are they filing an appeal if they’re shutting this down? And there’s obviously been this black hole of information on this site from the beginning. That’s how they frankly have been you know able to get away with such abuse, massive corruption, complete waste of taxpayers money. But this weird relationship between Florida and the use of the emergency management services, who actually runs it. And now what the feds are saying continues to cause chaos. Um. Regardless, it looks like the population is declining. That’s very good on one hand, the place should never have existed and needs to disappear from the planet as soon as possible. But when ICE does this, it causes massive pain to those inside. We have clients who just disappeared in the system going through massive transfers. Um. People’s due process rates are interrupted. We can’t find them for weeks at a time. So it continues to be chaos and um a crisis. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, I want to talk about that a little bit because I know that it might seem like you know to some people like oh Alligator Alcatraz is closing, that’s a good thing. But for the people who are there that means that they get transferred to another facility and there are other facilities like in Texas, for example, New Jersey where there’s currently ICE detainees are holding a hunger strike You mentioned like a black hole of information. Have you received any official notice about what is next for your clients in this facility in their immigration process? Is there just like nothing– 

Katie Blankenship: Absolutely not. 

Jane Coaston: No information. 

Katie Blankenship: No. 

Jane Coaston: For anyone ever? 

Katie Blankenship: No, this is this is like professional lack of transparency. They are at a level of expertness in providing absolute obscurity. We’re never gonna get information about our clients. I am of record on my clients. I’ve had people that had bond hearings scheduled. I have people that have court appearances to actually have their asylum cases heard. They’re gone. They have to start over in a different court. It’s gonna take ICE weeks to get people re-registered for some reason in a different detention center. So not only can I not find them for a certain amount of days, once I can find them, I have to go and knock on the government’s door and say, move their case to this court so I can re-file their bond, and another two, three, four weeks goes by. So it’s not that these are a minor inconvenience. You’re talking about people who are suffering extreme harm. There’s also no ranking detention centers in this country. There never has been, there certainly is not today. Everywhere you go, people are dying. People are living through the greatest trauma they have ever seen and it’s impacted on their families. So when you are disappeared on a bus in the middle of the night and sent across the country to California, separated even farther from your family and your attorneys, you know, this is this doesn’t feel like an improvement to people inside um and it’s a huge problem. 

Jane Coaston: I feel like immigration hasn’t been dominating the headlines since the end of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, though it’s worth noting that ICE is still working in Minnesota. Have the pace or the methods of ICE detainment changed in that time from what you’ve seen? 

Katie Blankenship: We continue to go down a steady decline of lawlessness. So I wanna share an example of what’s happening in Florida. And it goes directly to this question of Alligator Alcatraz because I think everybody has heard that Alligator Alcatraz was necessary for Florida in an emergency for all of the worst of the worse people, right? 

Jane Coaston: They had to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money on this. 

Katie Blankenship: It was it had to be. 

Jane Coaston: It had to be done. 

Katie Blankenship: It had to be. So the people that are actually, the human beings that are actually surviving in this detention center. There is a huge trend in Florida right now based on 287-G agreements. I think you’ve spoken about that before on this show. You and I may have spoken about it before. But based on 287-G agreements, every police officer in the state is now charged with being an immigration official. And so all up and down from Orlando all the way up to Jacksonville, there’s a current trend of stopping people for driving while Brown or Black. They stop them, they tell them it’s for some sort of criminal or traffic infraction, take them to jail, never file a ticket, never have probable cause for a stop, never bring charges, there’s no record of them in anything except for they called ICE and said come pick them up. And that’s who’s in Alligator Alcatraz right now. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, and just to clarify, a 287-G agreement, that basically just means police officers are now also immigration officers. 

Katie Blankenship: Basically. 

Jane Coaston: Great. Wonderful. 

Katie Blankenship: Great. 

Jane Coaston: Fantastic. 

Katie Blankenship: That’s all we need. Florida, you know we can always thank Ron DeSantis um for charging the way in authoritarian trends. Florida actually passed a law that everyone, all of these law enforcement agencies have to engage in 287-G agreements. So if you’re looking for you know any help from your local police station, what they may supposed to be doing, um they’re not, they’re out there stopping people of color and trying to make immigration arrests. 

Jane Coaston: Is that happening in other states? Like, you know, I know that you work in Florida, but you work across the South. What immigration tactics are you seeing outside of Florida? 

Katie Blankenship: Well, Florida, like I said, loves to be the blueprint. And so what I just shared about the 287-G situation is proliferating straight up through the southeast. So I’m currently based in Tennessee. We’re working in Tennessee, obviously, as well. That legislature has passed similar laws to enforce 287-G and you see now local Sheriff’s office, Sheriff’s offices conducting ICE raids um and just separating families and taking communities by storm. Um. Minnesota, as you said, was very forefront in our minds as a nation, and it’s since not in the front pages as much. But folks need to understand that while we stand with Minnesota, and what an example our brothers and sisters in Minnesota have given us for our resistance, Minnesota is but one of hundreds and hundreds of communities being terrorized, and that’s happening throughout the South. These tactics are in every Southern state. 

Jane Coaston: Obviously a lot has happened since we last spoke back in September and you mentioned Minnesota you ment– you know we’ve now had multiple heads of the Department of Homeland Security. A lot has taken place. What should people know about the Trump administration’s immigration policies right now? 

Katie Blankenship: Well, it is harming you. That’s what you need to know. It’s harming you. Um. It’s harming you even if you’re not an impacted person. It is absolutely destroying our communities and creating fear where there should be civil services. We have hundreds upon thousands of children not going to schools because ICE is stalking schools, people not getting medical care, people not calling for emergency assistance when they need it. Um, it is also where our immigrant communities go, so too do we. Where we allow the government to act lawlessly, to completely strip away constitutional rights that are the pillars of the democracy that we have still not realized, but are working towards and we’ll get to one day, then we are all affected. Immigration is first on the Trump, I think, priority list of authoritarian goals because they can, because the executive has so much power here. And the propaganda machine against immigration has been so successful for 59 years, probably more than that. And so it was a place to start, but it is it is grooming for getting ready to see greater lawlessness from our government. You know we see that over and over again. Um. And so, it is getting worse. It is costing all of us. It costs $200 a day to detain a person in ICE detention. That’s your taxpayer funds. I don’t know how anybody else felt. I’m sure I’m not alone. But the idea of paying my taxes this year, I still want, I need to go to a rage room to talk about paying my taxes to this government when we know what it’s going towards. Um. So this is a this is a crisis for the whole country to grapple with and it’s harming us and our children. 

Jane Coaston: Katie, as always, thank you so much for joining me. 

Katie Blankenship: It’s such a pleasure to be with you as always. Thank you so much. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Katie Blankenship, founding partner of Sanctuary of the South and an attorney who works with people going through the immigration process. More gold-plated news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of Scott Bessent] President Trump has done something that no other administration is able to do. We have gotten the Iranians to talk about their nuclear program and to perhaps commit to not having one. That has never happened before. 

Jane Coaston: Hmm I seem to remember another Iran deal involving their nuclear program. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed positive and stuck to the script on Thursday about the potential peace deal between the US and Iran. US officials are reportedly getting close to a draft memorandum with Iran that would extend the ceasefire, open the Strait of Hormuz, and push any discussion of Iran’s nuclear program to further negotiations. According to Axios, Trump has not signed off on the agreement and neither have Iranian officials. And according to Iranian state media, The Axios report, quote, “reflected the American side’s narrative and could not be confirmed by Iran.” So we’re actually not exactly close to the end of the war in Iran. But you have to admit, let’s get Iran to discuss limiting its nuclear program is a bit of a climb down from Trump telling the Iranian people back in February, quote, “when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.” But I’m sure it’s fine. 

[clip of Scott Bessent] I don’t think that there’s anything untoward about having the President of the United States, that the person who was President of the United States on the 250th anniversary bill. 

Jane Coaston: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that his department has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring Trump. Bessent told reporters Thursday he’s anticipating the passage of stalled legislation in Congress to put the president on a new bank note. Bessent says that authorizing the new currency will be up to lawmakers, but that quote, “We’ve created the bill because quote, “we have to be prepared,” for what? Expenses that require $250 bills. 

[clip of Jill Biden] What happened? I don’t know what happened. I mean, when I, as I watched it, I thought, oh, my God, he’s having a stroke. And it scared me to death. 

Jane Coaston: Remember that disastrous debate between then-President Biden and Trump in June 2024, the one that was the catalyst for him dropping out of the race? Well, Jill Biden is talking about it. It’s part of the press tour for her forthcoming memoir, View from the East Wing. In an upcoming interview with CBS Sunday Morning, she reveals she was surprised by her husband’s behavior. 

[clip of unnamed CBS Sunday Morning Reporter] Did you ever see signs that he was falling into cognitive decline? 

[clip of Jill Biden] No. No. No. 

[clip of unnamed CBS Sunday Morning Reporter] Truly. 

[clip of Jill Biden] No. 

Jane Coaston: Really? Are you sure? 

[clip of Thomas Massie] That one didn’t get away, unlike my election. [laughter] 

[clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene] Well, you know. 

[clip of Thomas Massie] We reeled that one in. 

[clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene] Yeah, hey there could be another one. 

[clip of Thomas Massie] Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie and former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene are vacationing together in Costa Rica with their partners. Massie captioned a video, quote, “America first Pacific summit retreat” on Wednesday, showing the crew having a great time while fishing in the ocean. And on Thursday, Massie trolled the Trump administration for striking alleged drugboats, tweeting, quote, “Marked safe. Our fishing vessel survived Southcom in the East Pacific yesterday,” with a smiling thumbs up picture. What timeline have we entered? As you first heard me mention yesterday, the Trump-affiliated Freedom 250 announced the first wave of performers for the Great American State Fair, an announcement that included pop duo Milli Vanilli. Guess what? Milli Vanilli had no idea they were on the list. The group’s singer, Jody Rocco, told the Associated Press that neither she, her sister Linda Rocco or any of the group’s members had been asked to come. In an email, Rocco wrote, quote, “My sister and I were shocked to see our name, Milli Vanilli as one of the performers.” Again, as you heard yesterday, I was also shocked. A Freedom250 spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Associated Press’s request for comment. And that’s the news. [music break] Before we go, mark your calendars. On June 8th, What a Day episodes will be hitting YouTube and your podcast feeds just in time for the golden hour. As you know, the news never stops, and in a week we will get it to you even faster. The latest updates, freshest analysis, and headlines as they happen. Just in time for your evening commute, decompression walk, or your new designated What a Day listening time. If you aren’t already, subscribe to What a Day on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and follow at @CrookedMedia on social so you never miss an episode. Same show, new release time. [music break] That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, don’t use fake endorsements if you’re running for Senate, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading, and not just about Georgia Republican Representative Mike Collins, who featured a wide list of endorsements on his website and Twitter accounts, even though they did not, in fact, endorse him. Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and one non-endorsement, a sheriff, told the Daily Caller, quote, “I wouldn’t vote for Collins if he’s the only one running.” [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Fohr, Erica Morrison, and Adriene Hill. Our team includes Hayley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]