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TRANSCRIPT

Todd Zwillich: It’s Friday, July 25th. I’m Todd Todd Zwillich, and this is What a Day, the show that rips off its shirt to reveal two pythons, brother. And we will see you at WrestleMania 7. RIP Hulk Hogan, we loved you as kids, up to and until your very racist sex tape. It was bad. Don’t look it up. [music break] On today’s show, the latest on just how hard the White House worked to find and then to hide the inconvenient truth about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s long friendship, more on Donald Trump’s effort to lower interest rates by intimidating the Fed chair and accusing him of construction fraud, and new evidence and new alarm about the extent of starvation in Gaza. But let’s start with the Trump administration’s massive and quickly growing campaign of migrant detention and deportation. It won’t surprise you to learn that it’s getting massive and fast, or at least it shouldn’t surprise you. When you hear some of these numbers, Trump’s tax and spending law, the so-called big, beautiful bill, the one that gave tax breaks to the rich and will cut off more than 10 million people from their health coverage, it put immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, on steroids. The law spends roughly $170 billion on immigration enforcement, 45 billion of that for expanded detention, 29 billion to help ICE hire and train more agents. Immigration judges and courts, just three billion. So that should make the priorities here clear. Last week, we told you about the new pop-up detention center in the Florida Everglades, the administration calls Alligator Alcatraz. It set the tone for the intimidation and dehumanization to come and the perverse fun the Trump administration is having while doing it. But Alligator Alcantraz is far from alone. ICE detention facilities are popping up all over the country as the Trump Administration rushes to execute its promised roundups. In other words, ICE now has the money and they’re using it. And now, increased reports of horrific conditions, lack of due process, and potential constitutional violations at these very same facilities. This week, a coalition of human rights groups released a new report alleging horrendous treatment at three South Florida detention centers. Detainees denied medical care, others forced into packed and inhumane conditions for days. All brought to you by the same people who were happy to lie about migrants eating pets as long as they could get their immigration message across. Katie Blankenship is an attorney and co-founder of Sanctuary of the South. They provide legal services and civil rights representation throughout the region with a special focus on clients in detention. Katie, welcome to What a Day. 

Katie Blankenship: Thank you, it’s great to be here. 

Todd Zwillich: Well, you represent over a dozen people who are currently being held in ICE detention centers, not only in Florida, but other states, Arizona, Colorado. How difficult has it been for you to get in touch with your clients at these places? 

Katie Blankenship: It’s gotten markedly worse, uh really, in just the last couple months. You’re seeing this escalation of human rights abuses that includes real blocks of access to counsel in really all of the facilities that we’re working in. For example, I have somebody at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. They have their final hearing on Monday. Their documents were due this Monday. They refused to let me speak with them. I’ve emailed and emailed. I have to have a legal visit. I’ve got to see this person. There’s just no response. So it’s happening in all of these places. 

Todd Zwillich: Usually, I mean, under the Constitution, when somebody is being detained, they have a right to speak to counsel and a right to talk to counsel. You’re given a point of contact to contact a client. That didn’t happen here. It seems like your clients are in a black hole. Is that the case? 

Katie Blankenship: Yes. 

Todd Zwillich: Or were you simply delayed from talking to them? 

Katie Blankenship: Well, at this point, it’s a delayed black hole soup, right? What basically happened is that once the outrage came out that they continued to block myself and other attorneys, then all of a sudden there was an email address, legal at privacy six, and then it bounced back forever. You couldn’t get through. Then they started scheduling them. Then they wouldn’t happen. Then they’d send you to another email address and say, oh, actually, everything’s down. We’re having technical difficulties. So that is how they’ve continued and continued. 

Todd Zwillich: Have you ever seen anything like this before in your career? 

Katie Blankenship: So I have had the unfortunate experience of seeing absolute horrific things in ICE detention centers in Florida and Georgia and elsewhere for far too long. But what we’re seeing now is an escalation that is so dangerous because it leads to death. That is quite literally what it leads to. There are people dying in these centers. That is happening in every detention center we’re working in. And so the escalation of the targeting of our immigrant communities is used with such violence in the enforcement crisis. It is overwhelming and put an amazing amount of pressure on a system that was broken from its inception intentionally so. 

Todd Zwillich: Well, I want to talk about the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades. You visited a short time ago, as I understand it. What happened when you got there? 

Katie Blankenship: I was actually trying to visit six people that day, our clients, prospective clients, and there was actually a minor that was reported to be in the facility that day. This was July 10th. The facility opened, I believe, on July 3rd. At that time, there was absolutely no information of not even where do you email or call to set up a legal visit, but quite literally who’s running this thing. That’s a question we still don’t have an answer to. Who’s custody are these people in? Who is responsible? That’s still a question. So the only option was to just drive out there and knock on the door. I drove out um early in the morning. I stayed out there. They stopped me at the checkpoint. The checkpoint is staffed all by Florida police and Florida state agents, although they say they have no real access to the facility. I waited for about two and a half hours when finally they said the contractor that runs the facility was gonna come out and speak to us. He gave me a form to fill out. I filled it out for all six of my folks. And I said, what’s next? And he said, you have to go. And I say, well, when am I gonna get to see my clients? And he says, they’ll call you within 48 hours and schedule something. 

Todd Zwillich: And did they? 

Katie Blankenship: And so where do I? No, no.

Todd Zwillich: They never did. 

Katie Blankenship: No. 

Todd Zwillich: You mentioned a minor named Alexis, 15 years old, being held there. Do you have reason to believe that there are other minors being held at this detention facility in the Everglades? 

Katie Blankenship: We do not know of a specific person at this point that’s a minor being held at the facility. But the question is, is there a risk and do I suspect that it’s happening and will happen again? 100%. Alexis was evidently held at the Everglades facility for three to five days. And as far as I know, the day that I went there, he was still there. One of the things that I fought with them on when they turned me away, I said, I’m not. I can’t go until you understand there’s a 15-year-old inside. I need you to confirm whether he’s there. You have to know there’s a 15- year-old inside the facility. I still don’t know if he was there that day or not. I’ve had that happen twice at Krome in the last two months of realizing there’s a 16-year old and a 17-year inside. It’s happening in detention centers all across the country. 

Todd Zwillich: Now, speaking of these reports, there was a report from Human Rights Watch that said three of these facilities, this is a quote from the report, “flagrantly violating international human rights standards.” That’s a serious charge. Can we get specific? What does that mean? What specific violations have you seen or been told by clients are going on at these facilities that would qualify Human Rights watch standard there? 

Katie Blankenship: So there is a lot of talk right now in the news about the Everglades, and I don’t want to take away from that atrocity. But it is important to understand this happens everywhere. So I do a lot of work out of the Krome North Processing Center in Miami. That’s an ICE detention facility run by ICE. Two things that should alarm any American, any human being listening to what’s happening inside. One, I represent the family of Maksym Chernyak. A 45-Year-old man who fled the Ukraine from the war in Ukraine with his wife Oksana. He was detained at Krome. He was healthy. He had no history of medical illness, and he was dead, brain dead in that facility within five days. In his medical records, it tracks that it said that he had high blood pressure from the moment he came in, that it continued to escalate, that he begged for medical help. They not only denied him medical help, but when he seized in his cell and started vomiting and losing consciousness, it took them 20 to 30 minutes to get to him and then two and a half hours to call emergency services. And by that time he was brain dead. Two weeks ago, I was in the same facility. I’m going to see my client because we had a hearing that morning and they’re taking me to the client visitation room. This is a tiny room. It has a table that fits four chairs and they go, Katie, you have to wait. Uh. We don’t have the rooms available right now. People are staying in there. So they let me wait outside of one of those rooms and in those rooms was nine men. There was a cardboard box that was unfolded on the floor. And I said, how long have you been here? This is a Tuesday and he said since Friday. I said in this room since Friday? I said what’s the cardboard box? That’s where we take turns to sleep. There was no water There is no pillow. There’s not room for them to sit at the same time. They are standing there. They were literally all standing and begging for help through the glass. 

Todd Zwillich: It’s horrific, Katie. How many places like this exist in Florida right now? Everglades, you mentioned Krome, north of Miami. Are they proliferating? Because the budget for this is huge. 

Katie Blankenship: Yes. Uh, they are proliferating and there’s a really good reason for that. The Trump administration in reality doesn’t, can I curse on this podcast? 

Todd Zwillich: Please. 

Katie Blankenship: [laughing] The Trump administration does not give a shit about an immigration problem, not at all. That is all bullshit. This is power and money. The taxpayers pay per day, per person, in an ICE facility upwards of $160. Where does that money go? It goes to the GEO group and those board of directors who have celebrated publicly the rise of the Trump administration. It goes to CoreCivic. It goes to the horror show that is the medical providers in these facilities that have been sued every way to Sunday on the medical neglect that they proliferated for years. It’s critical to understand the whole point of it is human suffering for profit. Period. End of story. 

Todd Zwillich: I want to ask about another client of yours and get into some specifics. Um.

Katie Blankenship: Sure. 

Todd Zwillich: You have talked about Michael Borrego too, you say has not been receiving proper medical care. Where is he? And what did he tell you about his situation? 

Katie Blankenship: So, Michael unfortunately remains at the Everglades internment camp. He had to be taken to the emergency room from the facility. Emergency surgery was required and he was quickly returned. Since then, he reports that he is not getting medical post-operative care, wound care. He continues to bleed. He reports blood in his stool. It is absolutely, um, disgusting conditions as some and others have reported. And his condition has gotten worse and worse every day. Since Michael arrived at the Everglades facility on July 5th, I have literally not heard his voice, seen his face, and trying to have some sort of contact. It was not until yesterday morning that we finally got to see him on video for the first time. They told us they will not allow us at the facility. There are no legal visits and there’s no legal mail. You were just beholden to see if a call will happen. It did happen with him finally. He was shackled by his wrist, chained to his stomach and his ankles, and was allowed to, you know, he couldn’t move at all. The video goes out, goes out goes out and he was able to communicate what was happening inside for about 20 minutes. 

Todd Zwillich: Katie, that human rights report that I just mentioned also detailed um reports of people being forced to eat off the floor, being chained together. Some of these conditions, if those reports are true, seem absolutely horrific. Do you have any confirmation of those reports and how widespread are those conditions? 

Katie Blankenship: They’re very widespread, and yes, there’s confirmation in multiple facilities. The one you just mentioned of forcing men to um eat like dogs off the ground happened at the Federal Detention Center in Miami. That was reported out by the Miami Herald and verified by multiple people inside. We’ve had multiple, multiple reports like that over the last few months that have been verified, not only by the detained individuals harmed, but even guards speaking out about what they’re saying. 

Todd Zwillich: I would ask, where’s the Justice Department? Where’s the consent decree? Maybe that question answers itself. Who’s empowered to put a stop to this? 

Katie Blankenship: That is such a difficult question these days, Todd. And it’s terrifying that that’s such a difficult question. We hope that we have a backstop with the federal courts because we will get no relief from this administration. They will not stop until there is a political price to pay, they will not start. So there’s no relief to be had in the federal government. That’s a terrifying place to be. And so you got to hope the federal court’s hold. And frankly, what we’ve seen from SCOTUS is not giving us a lot of hope that that’s going to be the backstop we need it to be. 

Todd Zwillich: Katie, I’m curious, after President Trump’s visit to the Everglades detention facility with Kristi Noem in tow and other Trump administration officials, the White House Twitter feed tweeted a picture of smiling alligators wearing ICE hats. Republican organizations, including the NRSE, started selling Alligator Alcatraz merch with alligators wearing ICE paraphernalia. Um from your perspective representing some of the people who are detained there. What do you make of that kind of promotion of the idea of alligators guarding humans and what it conveys? 

Katie Blankenship: Well, let’s talk about what it conveys first. First off, we’re in Florida. If people are not from the South or not from Florida, Alligator Alcatraz is a, it is a dog whistle, pure and simple, and not a, you know, it is not vague. It is a well-known trope in Florida, especially in the Everglades, that they would threaten slaves, make a joke of throwing slaves to the alligators. It has been something that they have used as sort of racialized violence, well throw them to the alligators for years and years and years in our history, right? And then you think about the use of Alcatraz, which what is Alcatrez known for? It’s known for being a horrific prison. It’s know for being a terrible place that treated people horribly. So what they’re saying is very clearly in this name is a racialized attack that we are going to treat you as absolutely poorly and inhumanely as possible. Now, what does it mean for us? The propaganda that goes with the immigration system has always been based on separating us and othering us. This is a power structure that white supremacy works upon. Keep us apart and keep us separate. If I don’t understand your humanity, then I won’t fight for it. And when Kristi Noem tweets, oh, it’s the scumbags of the earth, and Donald Trump says it’s the worst of the worst and the rapists. It’s not. It’s a 15-year-old child. It’s a DACA recipient. It’s a father and a husband and a son. People that have been here for years and families ripped apart, it tells Americans not to give a shit. And if they don’t give a shit, then the Trump administration gets to keep going with this power grab. And that’s what we’re looking at and what they’re trying to do. 

Todd Zwillich: Katie, thank you so much. 

Katie Blankenship: It was great to be here, Todd. Thank you. 

Todd Zwillich: That was my conversation with Katie Blankenship, an attorney based in Miami, who specializes in civil rights law and has clients currently in ICE detention centers. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Todd Zwillich: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] So we’re taking a look and it looks like it’s about 3.1 billion, went up a little bit, or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1. 

[clip of Jerome Powell] I’m not aware of that. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Yeah, it just came out. 

[clip of Jerome Powell] Yeah, I haven’t heard that from anybody from the Fed.

Todd Zwillich: President Donald Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell bickering publicly there like a married couple in the middle of a messy home remodel on Thursday, the two men donned hard hats for a tour of the ongoing renovations at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington. It’s currently undergoing a $2.5 billion facelift, but during the tour, Trump pegged the price tag at more than $3 billion, and that prompted Powell to vigorously shake his head, pull out his glasses, and take a look at the President’s math.

[clip of Jerome Powell] You’re including the Martin renovation, you just added in a third building, is what that is. That’s a third building, including the martin building. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] It’s a building that’s being built. 

[clip of Jerome Powell] No it was been, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] It’s part of the overall work. So uh–

[clip of Jerome Powell] It’s not new. 

Todd Zwillich: Sneaky developers trying to quote you the cost of an entire extra building that already exists. Now, it’s true that the Fed’s remodel has run over budget, but it’s also become a cudgel in Trump’s ongoing pressure campaign against Powell. The President wants the Fed chair to lower interest rates, and he’s repeatedly toyed with the idea of firing Powell over it. Legally, Trump can’t just oust Powell because he wants to. He has to find cause. But you know, somehow I don’t think Trump’s sudden interest in the Fed’s renovation job is because he wants to give input on tiles and sconces. Speaking to reporters after the tour, Trump said he doesn’t plan to fire Powell. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I just don’t think it’s necessary and I believe that he’s going to do the right thing. 

Todd Zwillich: Do the right thing, for who? The economy? Or I will say this though, I would watch a Fixer Upper episode pitting Trump and Powell against each other, standing in a pit. I would. French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday that France would recognize the state of Palestine, making it the first out of the G7 to do so. In a post on Twitter, Macron wrote that he would make the move official at the United Nations General Assembly in September. He wrote, quote, “The urgent need today is to end the war in Gaza and to rescue the civilian population.” He continued writing, quote, “peace is possible.” But the U.S. pulled out of peace talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar on Thursday. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said it was because he believed Hamas wasn’t negotiating in good faith. Israel exited the talks shortly afterward. And reports of mass starvation have been coming out of Gaza all week. An Oxfam press release reported that there is now no more international aid inside of Gaza. Oxfam says that since March 2nd, when Israel officially imposed a blockade on aid to the region, international aid groups have been forced to sit on enough pallets of aid to cover 101 football fields. An Israeli security official told What a Day’s newsletter writer Matt Berg that Israel doesn’t limit the amount of aid trucks that can enter Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel blames Hamas for looting aid and international aid organizations for failing to distribute supplies sitting on the region’s border. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Jeffrey Epstein’s former fixer and convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, in Florida on Thursday. In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking and other charges connected to her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. She’s currently serving out her 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee. Maxwell’s attorney, David Marcus, described the day-long meeting as a success and noted that Maxwell answered every single question that Blanche asked. Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff spoke to our newsletter writer Matt Berg on Thursday about what it all means. 

[clip of Senator Adam Schiff] I think what what the American people need to know about that visit is um Todd or Blanche was the president’s criminal defense lawyer before he became the number two at justice. He is acting now like he is the President’s criminal defense lawyer again. A top Justice Department official doesn’t go to prison to talk to some convict um about their case. That just doesn’t happen. But he’s going to represent Donald Trump 

Todd Zwillich: Schiff went on to validate concerns Americans might have about the visit, especially since it comes before Maxwell’s August 11th deposition before Congress. 

[clip of Senator Adam Schiff] Unless they’re willing to make this meeting public and invite the public to witness what goes on, this this just smells bad. They’re going to have this secret meeting with Epstein’s closest confidant, and then we’re supposed to believe what comes out of it when the president has already lied about knowing that his name was in these Epstein files. They’re just making matters worse every day. 

Todd Zwillich: Maxwell was appealing her conviction and recently asked the Supreme Court to take up her case after her appeal was rejected by multiple federal judges. Earlier this month though, the DOJ asked the Supreme court to reject her appeal. Columbia University announced that it has reached a deal with the Trump administration over the school’s alleged failure to address anti-Semitism and other violations of federal anti-discrimination laws. Columbia said Wednesday evening that it agreed to pay the U.S. Government a $200 million settlement over the course of three years. In return, hundreds of millions of dollars in federally funded research grants will be restored to Columbia. According to Columbia’s statement, the sum represents the majority of the federal funding that had been pulled from the school this year. The deal also solidifies a set of policies rolled out by the university in March as officials there struggled to appease the Trump administration. Those new policies include an internal review of Columbia’s curriculum related to the Middle East, a promise to end efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the hiring of 36 special on-campus security officers with the power to arrest students. Our newsletter writer Matt Berg spoke to Mahmoud Khalil in Washington this week. He’s the Columbia graduate student who was illegally arrested by ICE. He commented exclusively to What a Day about the agreement. Khalil said, quote, “by prioritizing Trump’s interests over its students, Columbia failed to protect me and so many of my peers. Emboldened a dangerous anti-Palestinian racist rhetoric, and threw its principles of academic freedom, under the bus.” And that’s the news. [music break] 

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Todd Zwillich: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, pour one out for former GOP Congressman and MAGA con man George Santos, who’s off to prison today after pleading guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how, according to a Prosecutor, Santos undertook epic levels of credit card fraud, insurance fraud, campaign contribution fraud and false statements like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Todd Zwillich. Say farewell to George Santos. He’s MAGA through and through. He’s grifty. He’s shameless. And he’s going away for a little over seven years. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Gina Pollock, and Laura Newcomb. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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