#BecauseMiami: Deport FIFA

Summary

The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz

#BecauseMiami: Deport FIFA

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

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Overview

Broadcast live from the Elser Hotel in Downtown Miami, this special Local Hour of #BecauseMiami focuses on Florida’s turbulent political scene—specifically immigration enforcement, the closure of the notorious Alligator Alcatraz detention center, and rampant gerrymandering. Host Billy Corben, joined by policy analyst Tomas Kennedy, corporate accountability journalist Jason Garcia, and Representative Anna Eskamani, dive into how local law enforcement collaborates with ICE, the hypocrisy of Miami’s political leadership, the impending FIFA World Cup’s collision with Florida’s enforcement tactics, and the financial and human toll of privatized immigrant detention. The episode revels in sharp banter, irreverent humor, and fiery activism.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Miami’s “Show Me Your Papers” Enforcement

• City of Miami PD Leading Immigration Stops

  • Tomas Kennedy highlights a Florida public law enforcement database showing Miami PD as the top city in Florida for “show me your papers” encounters—where officers stop and check the immigration status of people, particularly those “brown and/or speaking Spanish” (03:09).
    • “The City of Miami Police Department is the number one city law enforcement agency in the state of Florida for what you’re calling, show me your papers.” – Billy Corben ([03:09])
  • Most enforcement actions in the state are by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and county sheriffs, with Miami being the standout city force.

• Impact on the Cuban and Immigrant Community

  • Recent legal and administrative changes have left tens of thousands of Miami’s Cuban population, many of whom supported Trump, vulnerable to deportation ([05:30]).
    • “We literally have a population here that voted to deport themselves.” – Billy Corben ([05:30])
    • “The Trump administration has deported three times as many Cubans than the last three administrations combined.” – Tomas Kennedy ([07:10])

2. Eileen Higgins and Empty Promises on ICE Collaboration

• Higgins' Rhetoric vs. Reality
  • The panel derides Miami’s Democratic mayor Eileen Higgins for her inaction after promising on the campaign trail to end ICE collaboration under the 287(g) agreement.
    • “I would like the mayor who has the ability to affect change…to rescind this agreement, to do something about this.” – Tomas Kennedy ([10:19])
    • Billy sarcastically mourns Higgins' “Catholic guilt and pearl clutching” but demands substance over sympathy ([10:09]).

3. FIFA World Cup: Travel Warnings and Threats to Immigrants

• Civil Liberties Concerns for World Cup Visitors

  • Miami organizations and national groups issue a travel warning to FIFA fans, citing the risk of racial profiling, detention, and document checks not just from ICE, but from local police ([12:14]).

    “We are here to warn anyone considering travel to Florida of the very real risks of racial profiling, discrimination, and detention... at the hands of ICE, CBP, and even our state and local police here in Miami.” – Jason Garcia ([12:14])

  • The show recounts documented abuses—e.g., asylum seekers detained in FIFA parking lots and even the Miami-Dade mayor’s own boat being stopped by Border Patrol at a FIFA event ([13:03]).

• Assurances from Officials Called a Farce

  • Offers of “no ICE at stadiums” from Senator Marco Rubio are dismissed.
    • “That’s just not credible. That’s not policy.” – Tomas Kennedy ([14:35])
    • Kennedy and Corben call for a formal moratorium on enforcement during FIFA events, noting the $70 million in taxpayer money given to FIFA with zero meaningful protections in return ([15:40]).

4. Gerrymandering and Florida’s “Bloodless Coup”

• Overview of Florida’s Aggressive Partisan Redistricting

  • News updates and Anna Eskamani explain how Florida’s congressional map is designed to maximize GOP seats (24 out of 28), violating the Fair Districts Amendment’s prohibition on intentionally favoring a party ([21:08]).

• Democratic Lawmaker's Frustration

  • Anna Eskamani outlines how Republican control and legal maneuvering all but guarantee these maps will be used in upcoming elections—even if later found unconstitutional ([28:12]).

  • She educates on the “cracking and packing” tactics used to dilute minority and Democratic votes ([30:41]):

    “When you say it is race neutral, that is racist... If you don’t see color, then I’m invisible to you.” – Rep. Anna Eskamani ([28:18])

• Calls to Action

  • Despite the obstacles, Eskamani urges grassroots organization and vigilance regarding polling place intimidation in 2026 ([32:49]).

5. Closing Alligator Alcatraz: Follow the Money

• Human Rights Violations at the Center

  • Alligator Alcatraz, a massive immigrant detention facility, is targeted for closure amid complaints of abuse: lack of air conditioning, limited food and water ([37:25]).
    • Billy Corben: “Let’s set aside the rampant human rights violations… Let’s talk about where it was a success, and that is in the sheer grift…” ([37:42])

• Financial Grift and Political Kickbacks

  • Jason Garcia details how half a billion dollars have been spent, much flowing to politically connected contractors—sometimes companies formed just to cash in ([39:47]).
    • $250,000 from major contractor CDR went to AG James Uthmeyer; another vendor, “Duty Calls” (porta-potty provider), made $90M in a year ([41:40]).
    • “If you put garbage in, you’re going to get garbage out. Yeah. This was a racket from the jump, and it’s exiting the scene as a racket.” – Billy Corben ([47:09])

• No Federal Reimbursement

  • The state used “emergency management" funds (meant for hurricanes) for the prison after declaring an “immigration emergency.”
  • Feds have refused to reimburse Florida because the facility was built illegally—without required environmental studies ([45:21]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [05:30] Billy Corben: “We literally have a population here that voted to deport themselves.”
• [07:10] Tomas Kennedy: “The Trump administration has deported three times as many Cubans than the last three administrations combined.”
• [10:19] Tomas Kennedy: “I would like the mayor who has the ability to affect change…to rescind this agreement, to do something about this.”
• [12:14] Jason Garcia: “We are here to warn anyone considering travel to Florida of the real risks of racial profiling…”
• [17:38] Billy Corben: “Our city of immigrants is perhaps no longer safe for immigrants.”
• [28:18] Rep. Anna Eskamani: “When you say it is race neutral, that is racist.”
• [47:09] Billy Corben: “If you put garbage in, you’re going to get garbage out... This was a racket from the jump, and it’s exiting the scene as a racket.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:53] – Tomas Kennedy introduces Miami’s “show me your papers” patrol
• [05:30] – Discussion of Cuban-American deportations
• [09:40] – Mayor Eileen Higgins' campaign promises vs. reality
• [12:14] – FIFA World Cup travel warnings and ICE fears
• [15:41] – Taxpayer subsidies to FIFA and calls for accountability
• [21:08] – Gerrymandering and legal challenges in Florida
• [28:18] – Anna Eskamani on “race-neutral” gerrymandering
• [37:42] – Alligator Alcatraz: Human rights and the financial scam
• [39:47] – Jason Garcia on the "marketing gimmick" of Alligator Alcatraz
• [45:21] – Explaining why the feds won’t reimburse Florida

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Tone and Style

The episode toggles between biting satire, outraged advocacy, and genuine investigative journalism. Billy Corben’s irreverence is counterbalanced by Kennedy's activism, Eskamani’s idealism, and Garcia’s investigative rigor. The discussion remains fast-paced, controversial, and deeply critical of Florida’s political establishment, making this a must-listen for news junkies grappling with the intersection of sports, politics, and immigration.

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For listeners: The above summary covers only the main content sections and omits all ads, sponsors, and off-topic banter.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

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[Billy Corben]

An avid Trump supporter taken into federal custody by immigration authorities. Please get her home.

[Caller/Guest]

She does not deserve this.

[Billy Corben]

I didn't vote for this.

[Caller/Guest]

I just got deported. Adios. Because I bought Porto Natron bound face down in the road. This is exactly what we bought. Four locas up. Let's go. Puppy drum Woo. Maga is a spaniel for far. Now you're get on the truck the bull dance Stomping my throat. Choke me, puppy. That's so good. Show me El Matomi based on a trunk ICE agents killing folks, killing folks. Mustang CR hungry. Deport my wife.

[Billy Corben]

Happy Mother's Day because Miami is back and we are taking no prisoners. Unless you count Alligator Alcatraz, in which case. Which is shutting down. I mean, right out of the gate with F bomb. Roy.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

We can say that now, Roy.

[Billy Corben]

Alligator Alcatraz is shutting down. I don't know where all those families from the Midwest are going to. Are going to have to go back to Disney World, I guess, or Epcot. They're not going to have Alligator Alcatraz to buy T shirts from anymore. That'll be later on in the show. Also, we're going to gerrymander this state into oblivion. Because, man, if you can't win an election on ideas, you got to cheat. Cheat, cheat, baby. I'm telling you, taking no prisoners.

[Caller/Guest]

They're coming all over the place.

[Billy Corben]

Joining us now in studio, Tomas Kennedy, policy analyst at the Florida Immigration Coalition.

[Tomas Kennedy]

I gotta ask, were the dancers in front of the Trump Golden Calf in your video? That's AI generated because. Right, Because I don't know what's.

[Co-host/Guest]

No, those are the pastors who prayed

[Billy Corben]

in front of the golden statue because the Bible says that that's a good thing to do. Yeah, whatever's in the Bible. That's what we do in Doral. Okay, so, Tomas, your latest op ed, the headline reads, miami police have become a show me your papers patrol despite public opposition. So apparently, according to a Florida law enforcement database that keeps track of these sort of stop. And they're not stop and frisk. But they're like Stop and ask for papers if you're brown and or speaking Spanish. The City of Miami Police Department. City of Miami Police Department is the number one city law enforcement agency in the state of Florida. For what you're calling, show me your papers. What is it that we know about this?

[Tomas Kennedy]

So, correct. There's a public database put out by the state of Florida to sort of tout their immigration enforcement numbers. What's peculiar about this database? It doesn't show any enforcement by federal entities, meaning ICE or the Border Patrol. This is by state authorities. Out of the first 11 entities outlined, number one is the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

[Billy Corben]

Statewide.

[Tomas Kennedy]

Right. It's the most cellist empowered agency to conduct immigration enforcement. Then there's nine sheriff's departments.

[Billy Corben]

I guess Florida Highway Patrol would probably have to be up there too.

[Tomas Kennedy]

It was part of the fdle.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, right. Statewide.

[Tomas Kennedy]

Yeah. Nine sheriff departments.

[Billy Corben]

So that's entire counties then the sheriffs.

[Tomas Kennedy]

The sheriffs are municipal entities that are independent. Right. We elect the sheriff.

[Billy Corben]

Right. But those are larger areas. I'm saying those are countywide agencies.

[Tomas Kennedy]

Correct. City of Miami is the 11th entity and city of Miami runs its police department as part of. We don't elect a sheriff in city of Miami. Right. It's at the pleasure of the commission, City manager, Mayor. Right. So in terms of municipal city entities, City of Miami would be the 11th in total, but the number one city in immigration encounters according to the state of Florida. Not me. According to this database put out by the state of Florida.

[Billy Corben]

Now, I think we know 70% of Cuban Americans in Miami Dade county supported Donald Trump for president. Voted for Donald Trump if they were able to.

[Tomas Kennedy]

A lot of diasporas, a lot of people in our community supported Donald Trump that are now being de documented. They're losing status. They're being left vulnerable.

[Billy Corben]

What are the stats? The headline at New York Times earlier this year was, to their shock, Cubans in Florida are being deported in record numbers. Cubans had long benefited from legal privileges unavailable to immigrants from other countries and President Trump has changed that. So we literally have a population here that voted to deport themselves. What are we looking at statistic wise in terms of deportations of Cubans?

[Tomas Kennedy]

Right. I don't want to get too in the weeds on it, but because of changes on their possibilities of being paroled and administrative bureaucratic changes around the Cuban Adjustment Act, Cubans are unable or it's a lot more difficult for them to regularize adjust their status than it once was. So a lot of the Cubans that recently arrived in the past couple of years have been left in a sort of legal limbo where they are vulnerable to detention. That's why so many of them end up at Alligator Alcatraz. You've had Cubans in this show, right, where their family members or loved ones are held in that detention center. Obviously, Venezuelans have lost temporary protected status. TPS to the tunes of hundreds of thousands Haitians, Nicaraguans, El Salvadorians, et cetera. I mean, we're talking hundreds of thousands of people in our community have lost legal status. And now they are targets of immigration enforcement, again, not just by ICE and Border Patrol, but also by our state police and our municipal police forces that are empowered to do so under these 287 police ICE collaboration agreements. Which city of Miami is a party of.

[Billy Corben]

How much more likely is it that Cuban Americans, for example, are to be deported under this second Trump regime than they had been in the past?

[Tomas Kennedy]

Well, you just put out that great New York Times piece. I think it was by Patty Maze, who wrote it. The Trump administration has deported three times as many Cubans than the last three administrations combined. I mean, you know, thousands of people, more. So it's a significant hike in the number of enforcement targets.

[Billy Corben]

So Miami mayor. The new Miami mayor as of last December is Eileen Higgins. The headlines all over the world were, Eileen Higgins, Democrat flips the red city of Miami blue. We've talked about on this show before what bullshit I think that spin is.

[Tomas Kennedy]

But listen, she also flipped the county commission red right when she.

[Billy Corben]

Right when she looked. But Democrats in this state need all the W's, fake or not, that they can get.

[Tomas Kennedy]

When some. You lose some.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, I mean, apparently in the same election too. But she also beat a candidate by like 18, 19 points that was endorsed by Donald Trump, very much branded a MAGA candidate and she defeated him, I mean, handily. But she also talked a lot of shit. She was sitting in the seat you're in right now, lying to me through her teeth over and over and over again.

[Tomas Kennedy]

I saw the episode.

[Billy Corben]

We. We. I'm sorry. And yeah, you should be listening. So. So I'm going to be her. The mayor. Eileen Higgins, unofficial campaign promise scorekeeper. And it's not going well.

[Tomas Kennedy]

The bullshit meter.

[Billy Corben]

One of the things she talked about a lot on the campaign trail and when she was finally elected in December and in interviews through January, talked a lot about the so called 287G agreement, which is the very pact between local law enforcement agencies or state law enforcement agencies and ice, the federal government, to effectively undertake immigration enforcement. The same shit that that Florida law

[Tomas Kennedy]

enforcement database is police ICE collaboration.

[Billy Corben]

Right. So here are some of the things that Eileen Higgins said about that. Before we learned that the city of Miami Police Department was the number one city law enforcement agency in the state for this kind of.

[Guest Speaker]

There's no reason in the city of Miami that our police department should be in the job of federal immigration enforcement. ICE and its tactics have been in my community for over a. They have been causing great fear and terror in our residents. It is inhumane, it is cruel. I'm a Catholic. I can barely grapple with the lack of humanity around all this. We're a place where most of our residents were born somewhere else. And so the harsh, cruel, inhumane, horrible, trickle down hatred tactics that are coming from the federal government, I am convinced made some people want to vote for me because they think I will stick up for them in the face of this sort of behavior.

[Billy Corben]

Well, I'm awfully broken up over her Catholic guilt and pearl clutching about this. Tomas, how do you respond to mayor, new mayor, Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins?

[Tomas Kennedy]

I mean, rhetorically, I agree with everything she's saying, but you know, I'm not the mayor. I would like the mayor who has the ability to affect change, to affect the agenda items in the City of Miami Commission to put items up or affect the ability of items to be heard, to rescind this agreement, to do something about this. I would like for her to do it, you know, just like she told Reverend Nell Sharpton in that last clip. She said people voted for me because they trusted me to stick up for them. Well, stick up for us in a real substantive manner. You know, her election. I think it's not just me saying it. A lot of observers, including the mayor herself, said people voted as a referendum partly on this immigration question. Right. And a lot of the people that supported this, Francis Suarez gone, Joe Carollo gone. Right. So, yeah, I mean especially you know, with city of Miami police being one of the highest enforcers of this 287g police ICE collaboration practices and so many people who are again losing status, being left vulnerable, being left targets of this immigration enforcement. Yeah, it's awfully disappointing to see the mayor not move on this in a substantive manner, in a practical manner. Right.

[Billy Corben]

Yeah, that's all well and good, but you know what? I'm really concerned about FIFA.

[Tomas Kennedy]

Me too. Actually, let's talk about that.

[Billy Corben]

So let's run this clip. A call for FIFA to guarantee protection for World cup fans planning to attend the matches here and just hang out at watch parties all around town, South

[Tomas Kennedy]

Florida organizations are concerned about the safety of the visitors and local families. They want FIFA to make sure there will be no agents detaining anybody or

[Billy Corben]

asking people for documents.

[Jason Garcia]

We are here to warn anyone considering

[Billy Corben]

travel to Florida of the very real risks of racial profiling, discrimination, and attention that you may face at the hands of ice, cbp, and even our state and local police here in Miami. Something like hundreds of the world's oldest and most storied human rights and civil liberties organizations signed on to this, like, travel warning. Basically, if you come to the United States for World cup, we cannot guarantee your safety. We cannot guarantee that your human rights will not be. Will not be violated. I'm laughing because it's so sick and twisted, but this appears to be having an impact with respect to travel plans, with respect to hotel reservations. And this is all related to ICE and these sort of like, stop and ask for papers, right?

[Tomas Kennedy]

I mean, you know, I think a large part as to why people are not coming for, for the FIFA World cup is related to travel cost and just the price gouging. But look, we've had incidents during the Club World cup where asylum seekers were detained in the parking lot and ended up at immigration detention centers. We've had tourists with valid travel visas being detained here in Florida multiple times, ending up at places like Alligator, Alcatraz. Billy. We had the mayor's boat on a boat charter by Telemundo with Daniela Levine Cava, mayor of Miami Dade County. She was going to a Club World cup event mid last year. It was detained by the US Coast Guard with federal immigration agents from the Border Patrol, held for two hours. She never made it to her, you know, FIFA party. And they asked the immigration status of the catering crew and the boat crew. So it's not just that they're detaining migrants, you know, who want to watch the games in the parking lots of these FIFA events, which is happening. They did this to the mayor of Miami. You know what I mean? Like, if they are willing to do that to theoretically the most powerful person in the county, imagine what they would do to you, the little guy, Tomas.

[Billy Corben]

Tranquilo. Tranquilo. Headline in the New York Times last week. Miami host committee of FIFA says Rubio, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State told us that ICE will not be at World cup stadiums. Are your concerns assuaged? Are you reassured?

[Tomas Kennedy]

And that was in response to the press conference that you participated on. So thank you so much for all your support. Always. But look, Rodney Barretto, who's the host of who's one of the heads of the Miami host committee saying, trust me, bro, I talked to Marco Rubio and there's not gonna be ice there. That's just not credible. That's not policy. You know, what needs to happen, there needs to be a formal declaration.

[Billy Corben]

That was a lie, right?

[Tomas Kennedy]

This would be a formal declaration with the host committee with FIFA saying, everybody, there will be a moratorium on enforcement operations during FIFA events. The fan fest, the games come, this is a welcoming place, you know, saying, trust me, bro, I talked to Rubio on the side and everything's all good. It doesn't pass the smell test. And you know, we have given, as you've outlined, I think in this program before, we have given FIFA in Miami Dade 60 million in taxpayer funds and I think, what, 5.7 million in city of Miami in kind services and other things. I think, you know, we're nearing the $70 million bill for taxpayers here.

[Billy Corben]

To billionaires, right?

[Tomas Kennedy]

Sports welfare to FIFA, who's expected to make 13 billion with no revenue sharing for host cities and municipalities. I think we're within our rights to say, look, we want you to advocate for the safety and security of our fans. In this immigration enforcement context, I think that's a valid ask.

[Billy Corben]

You think we should get something for that money, bottom line? And I will say, I don't know

[Tomas Kennedy]

if we're getting much. All I want is for them to lobby the administration.

[Billy Corben]

Well, just so we're assurances that we're a tourism town, dude. Right? And so if people are gonna come here, we just want to be reassured that if you're gonna spend the money on airfare, on hotels, on tickets to the World cup games, that you're not gonna be needlessly harassed, that you're not gonna have to undergo unlawful searches and seizures at the airport of your person or your property, have your electronic devices seized, downloaded, or God forbid, wind up in prison in El Salvador. I don't think it's that much to ask for, certainly for the tax dollars that we're using to subsidize this event.

[Tomas Kennedy]

And look, this is gonna sound incredibly naive, but we have to remember what FIFA was conceptually built to be, right? It's supposed to be, was supposed to be a non profit organization for the advancement of football, soccer as a worldwide sport. Right. And it's supposed to be a force for good. Obviously. We know it's a corrupt entity that bribes public officials everywhere and sports washes some of the worst dictatorships through the decades, whether it's the military junta and Argentina or the theocratic dictatorship of Qatar or whatever, you know. But theoretically it is supposed to be a nonprofit that just advances the sport of football. And it's really become a disgusting, corrupt, price gouging, abusive entity that mistreats its fans and, you know, squeezes them for all they can.

[Billy Corben]

And really, I never thought I'd live to say it, but the truth is, is that our community, our city of immigrants is perhaps no longer safe for immigrants.

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[Co-host/Guest]

Chris, Cody, when you come over to my house and we put on the games, I got basketball, I got baseball going on. But what do I lay out for you and the boys for entertainment and drinking?

[Billy Corben]

Miller Line.

[Co-host/Guest]

Uh huh. Those beautiful white cans or on draft or the bottle if you prefer.

[Billy Corben]

Oh, when you open that with the can though, and you one of the

[Co-host/Guest]

best sounds on the planet. You pair that with the right game, you take that first sip, we both look around. It's not a bit.

[Billy Corben]

I have goosebumps thinking about the first sip.

[Co-host/Guest]

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[Billy Corben]

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[News Reporter]

A group of voters wants the court to block this map, saying it was drawn to intentionally favor the GOP giving Republicans as many as 24 of Florida's 28 congressional seats. The lawsuit claims the 2026 map packs and cracks Democratic voters in the Orlando area. The suit claims it's a viol violation of Florida's Fair Districts amendment.

[Jason Garcia]

The Fair District Amendment says that when you go to draw the district lines, you can't do so with the intent of favoring or disfavoring a political party.

[News Reporter]

The map drawer says he used partisan data. Governor Ron DeSantis has claimed recent US Supreme Court decisions weakens Voting Rights act protections as giving Florida more flexibility in how districts are drawn. So it's now up to the courts to decide if this map is constitutional. But that decision could take months or even years. That as we're just weeks away from the candidates qualifying deadline for the 2026 election cycle.

[Billy Corben]

If it wasn't for disenfranchisement, Florida would have no franchisement at all. It seems it's looking that way in the whole country, Roy. We are in the midst of a mid decade redistricting battle that's playing out so far in eight states but is underway in four other states. Those eight states incidentally are three what they call blue states. The rest are all red states. And this seems to be legal except in Virginia. Except in a blue state where voters actually voted on new district maps, which again are not supposed to happen mid decade but they voted on them. And then the Virginia the state Supreme Court said you Sorry Roy, we can say that now. Thanks a lot. When you're this, you have to be able to say it. Stop it. Sorry. So here's the thing. This all started last year when President Trump basically demanded Texas redistrict the state in order to effectively attempt to reduce the number of so called blue districts in the House so that the Republicans would be less likely to lose the House in the November midterm elections. And there's all sorts of nefarious ways in which they do this, by the way, Roy, this is what happens when you cannot win on ideas and ideals and the current state of the economy and the marketplace and when Republicans are in charge of literally everything from the House to the Senate to the White House to the Supreme Court, and clearly some of these state supreme courts as well. So this is what they call a bloodless couple. Not that they would mind spilling some blood what was January 6th, but this is a bloodless coup. This is some Cuba shit. This is some Fidel Castro shit, where you're saying that we don't have to win in the marketplace of ideas. We don't have to win on the state of the economy. We don't have to win other than by cheating. And that's, I think, what's happening here. That's just my opinion. So I brought someone on who probably shares that opinion. I'm always looking for voices to push back, Roy. You know, I want to do callers, I want to do more voices from the right, but they never accept my invitations. Can you believe? Actually, what am I talking about? Most Democrats don't accept my invitations either. Yeah, I mean, you are just leading

[Tomas Kennedy]

the league and bridge burning.

[Guest Speaker]

Hashtag.

[Billy Corben]

Because Miami Representative Anna Eskimani serves in the Florida House. She represents Central Florida in the greater Orlando area. For people outside of Florida, Disney, actually, that's Kissimmee, but I guess that's part of the greater Orlando area. She is also running for mayor of Orlando in 2027. If there are still elections in 2027, I'm be to wonder if there's going to be free and Fair elections in 2026. Representative, what the hell is going on? You're up in Tallahassee right now. What's going on in the Cock and Balls building?

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Oh, Billy, it's great to have you back. It's great to be back. Not on your show. Not in Tallahassee.

[Billy Corben]

Right.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

I got that are back in the state capitol. We're here for the budget, which we still haven't done, which is our one constitutional responsibility and should have been done on March 3rd. Yeah, March 13th. My God, it's been forever.

[Billy Corben]

To be clear, you guys have one job as a Florida legislature in the annual legislative session, which costs us a fortune to send you guys up there to get that job done. And you did not do the one job you had to do. So now there's this series of special sessions to basically clean up your mess and of course create more mess, it seems.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Well, that is a great summary. Yes, Republican. Remember, this is Republican majority legislature, Republican governor's office and of course Republican takeover of the judiciary. So this is not due to, you know, some sort of part partisan stalemate. This is the inner party conflict in the gop. So despite being control of everything, they still can't get things done. And we're facing that moment right now. Now, obviously we're going to do everything we can to bring money back to our communities, to fund public education. So many other topics, affordability crisis that we'll be championing. But we come back after this incredibly unconstitutional and just partisan gerrymandering, as you mentioned, where the governor took a sharpie and drew his own map and the bill sponsors couldn't even answer basic questions about it. It was, it was wild to watch.

[Billy Corben]

But they don't have to answer questions about it. Right? They have the super majority. It was going to pass irregardless, why even bother? They could just come up with two middle fingers to the pod and it's going to pass anyway.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

No, I mean that's the attitude that they carry for sure. Now I will say what's helpful for us as members of minority caucus is the legal battle. For me, the fight doesn't stop in the House floor. It starts in the House floor and building a foundation for litigation. And of course many lawsuits have been filed, but it's such a, it's just this out of body experience to ask. I would argue very basic questions about your bill, about your map and you can't answer them. I mean, it's just embarrassing.

[Billy Corben]

I love, and by love I mean I hate that your job now up there is to just create grounds for, for, for litigation. And here's there's two problems with litigation. Number one, a lot of the lawmakers up there are lawyers. I have to think lawyer is probably one of the number one professions in the Florida House and Senate. Am I wrong? Including the governor's mansion. And yet they go out of their way to deliberately year after year pass what they know to be unconstitutional legislation and then use our tax dollars to hire outside attorneys for thousands of dollars per hour, hundreds of dollars an hour, to then defend what they already know to be unconstitutional legislation, which very oftentimes gets overturned. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes they appeal so that they could, they could charge more attorneys fees by their politically connected lawyers and I presume campaign and PAC donors. And the other problem Is as was evidenced in our cold open that take years so we could have an election. Because right now, as of today, the so called unconstitutional districting is the law of the land. So we could go ahead with elections for that which a couple of years from now could be declared unconstitutional. And yet you already have the representatives that were arguably elected unconstitutionally in office. Too bad, so sad.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Your assessment is, is spot on when it comes to the reality of the situation.

[Billy Corben]

Right.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Like we are at a precipice where despite these maps being unconstitutional, despite the governor's own attorneys and staff saying that they ignored the state constitution, these maps are very likely to be the maps in play for November because any litigation will take years to come to a conclusion. And I want to just amplify a point that I think is worth making. Bill sponsors and map drawers said that they were ignoring race, this was race neutral and they drew these maps. I think it's important to stress, say something like that. When you say it is race neutral, that is racist. Coach, you're basically saying is that you're ignoring communities of color and you're practicing white supremacy. And it's just, it's so bizarre to me that more people don't understand that. Right. Like there's just no way. One of my favorite poets, Nahira Waiheed, she, she writes, and I'm not going to know it verbatim, but she basically writes that if you don't see color, then I'm invisible to you. And that alone is a, is a racist premise that you're just totally ignoring the realities of racism in this country. And to draw a map where you're ignoring race means you're promoting one race over others. And it's so important for folks to understand that, to uplift that. And obviously we, we are looking at a landscape where it could be 24 Republican seats and four Democratic seats in a state as large and diverse as Florida. I mean, it's just shocking.

[Billy Corben]

Well, let's talk about that because we've been talking around this, we've been, I've been bitching about it. Let's talk about the practicalities of this. What redistricting means, what gerrymandering means, the idea that they're trying to draw more registered Republicans into a district. And I think what's really interesting and people don't understand this, it's much more of a visual thing, but cracking. What is cracking mean? I mean we saw that happen in Tennessee where they literally decimated the one black district in and around Memphis. And this is such A vivid visual, this idea of cracking. So can we talk a little bit about that and what that means when you have a concentrated group of blacks or Hispanics that make up a not insignificant percentage of a state population, but how they absolutely decimate their representation in government?

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Yeah, so typically it's referred to as, as you noted, cracking and packing. So these are insider baseball terms used in the process of map drawing. So cracking is you are dividing up communities, like you noted, you're basically trying to separate historic African American neighborhoods, well known Latino neighborhoods, and you're separating them to dilute and water down their voting power. I've also seen cracking in the context of college campuses where student populations will be divided to water down the ability for students to select someone of their, of their choice. Packing is, is almost like the reverse of that where you're trying to pack communities of color into one district so they don't have the ability to, to engage in political power for multiple seats. So this was, for example, Congresswoman Corrine Brown seat where it was this kind of weird snake that went up the St. John's river from Orlando to Duval and it was basically trying to pack all the black voters into one district versus creating multiple majority minority seats. And so both tactics are wrong, they're unconstitutional and they should be avoided. But obviously in this case, you know, that was, that was not the situation. They absolutely cracked districts with a goal to dilute the ability for kings of color to be able to choose someone other of their choice.

[Billy Corben]

Roy, for the record, cracking and packing is also what Andrew Gillum does on a Saturday night. Damn it.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

We can say that now.

[Co-host/Guest]

Billy.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Billy, no.

[Billy Corben]

Representative Eskimani, before we go, I see that one of the lawsuits, I'm sure there's multiple challenging. This unconstitutional gerrymandering and redistricting here in the state of Florida is being challenged in your neck of the woods in central Florida. You don't have to speak specifically to that case. I don't know what, if any familiarity or involvement you have with it. But generally speaking, last word, what's next? Where do we go from here in this, you know, midterm elections year, when you see an administration who is willing to cheat, willing to literally move the line and willing, if all else fails, to seize ballots.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

So, so many thoughts on this. Right. I think one is that we should find a little bit of inspiration, the fact that to draw this map, the majority party had to dilute current Republican seats. And so, you know, the numbers obviously are not ideal, but I also think it's important for us to realize that Trump is unliked, his polling is in deep, deep water. And we have the opportunity to potentially flip some seats that we never thought we could flip. And of course, we have to run the best candidates in those seats. But don't assume it's because they say it's a red sea. That's a red sea. Especially when you have to dilute those red seats to expand this potential map for the gop. So that's important is that run everywhere, run hard, and. And also support those candidates that are running on progressive platforms, that are pushing for corporate accountability, that are challenging AI data centers and AI and are really speaking to where the. The American people are when it comes to the tensions between their everyday needs and the billionaire class. I also want to, of course, emphasize that the intimidation tactics at polling locations will be real and we have to be ready for that. And so we really have to come up with networks of support, mutual aid programs like do everything we can to help people that are financially struggling right now. Also, ensuring their access to the ballot is not going to be restricted. And we'll be doing that on the ground in Orlando. So I really do encourage folks to pursue those types of efforts in your neighborhood at that local level, because the only way we're going to be able to take the state back and to build power long term.

[Roy]

Oh, that's B.S. no, totally, totally B.S.

[Billy Corben]

representative and I wanted to give Rhonda Sanders an opportunity to respond. Representative Anna Eskimani. Find [e-mail]. That's Anna with two ends. Thanks so much for being here. Good luck up there in Tallahassee. I hope you hit what I think is the best restaurant in town. Waffle House. Any one of the six of them. It's a culinary tradition.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Who doesn't love Waffle House?

[Billy Corben]

My bowels sometimes scattered, shattered and tattered. But enough about Andrew. Kill him.

[Ad Host]

Damn it.

[Billy Corben]

Billy.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Oh, my God. Billy.

[Co-host/Guest]

Tony. You know that moment at a party or at a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks?

[Billy Corben]

I know it. Well, it's usually when I show up, everybody goes crazy.

[Co-host/Guest]

Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but. But it's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo.

[Billy Corben]

Walk in like this.

[Co-host/Guest]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up. Hootin. And hollerin'. Keep it Cuervo.

[Billy Corben]

Keep it Cuervo, baby.

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[News Reporter]

is normal activity outside the immigration detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, and new complaints about what's happening inside. Just one day after the governor confirmed, state and federal officials are talking about closing it down.

[Roy]

It was always designed to be a temporary facility. It has made a major impact, and if we shut the lights out on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.

[News Reporter]

Hundreds of millions of Florida tax dollars are being spent to operate the facility,

[Roy]

and by the way, all the expenses are reimbursable by the federal government. And that will happen. I know the media has made a big deal. It's fema. It takes a while. We're getting it, and you will see that very shortly.

[News Reporter]

Also, new complaints surfaced just today from the wife of a man being held and complaining of no air conditioning, limited food and water.

[Billy Corben]

Let's set aside the rampant human rights violations that have been going on in this concentration camp in the Florida Everglades for the last year. Let's just forget about that for just a moment. Well, human rights violations, constitutional violations. Let's just forget that part. And let's also forget this ridiculous spin from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that this has somehow been a success in some way in terms of moving the needle forward, of getting some of the worst undocumented immigrants and criminals, you know, violent criminals, off the streets. Let's just forget the fact that this is just absolute, total utter.

[Roy]

Oh, that's B.S. no, totally, totally B.S.

[Billy Corben]

but let's talk about where it was a success, and that is in the sheer grift and that deflection at the end there where DeSantis is like, oh, but we're gonna get paid back. All this money's coming back from the federal government. Part of the reason they're gonna shut it down, Roy, is because they aren't getting reimbursed from the federal government for the half a billion plus dollars that have been spent. But the question is, where did that money go? As they said in all the President's Men, the movie, not the book, Follow the Money, as Deep Throat said. And absolutely one of the best Follow the Money journalists I've ever had the pleasure to read, and certainly the best Follow the Money in Florida journalist we have is Jason Garcia, seeking rents FL.com he's the leading corporate accountability reporter here in the state, the author of Big Profits, Tiny Taxes, which exposed how corporations dodge taxes, and a 2021 series tracing dark money used in a ghost candidate scheme. So much to talk about, so little time. Jason, let's follow the money here. I mean, they're going to shut this place down. How much did they spend? Where did it go? Because clearly it was not a success by any measure, in my opinion. And finally, when do we get that money? When do the feds show us the money that we've been promised? From day one on this scheme, it has been success.

[Jason Garcia]

Success in one particular fashion, and that is as a marketing gimmick. The world's most expensive marketing gimmick. A chance to sell a bunch of Al Alligator Alcatraz merch and get some look like tough guys on Twitter for a few months over the summer last year. But we're talking about upwards of half a billion dollars that has been spent on this one facility. Much of that money through contractors that are of course, major campaign contributors in Florida. And I'll just give you one example just to drive this sort of home. One of the lead contractors on there has been a South Florida company called cdr. Cdr. It's got a number of, of different, different affiliates, some of them that do like health care, treatment, stuff like that. CDR was one of the main contractors on this project. Also gave $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars to James Uthmeyer, the appointed Attorney general, who is widely considered the sort of the. The brain trust behind building an immigrant detention camp in the middle of the Florida Everglades.

[Billy Corben]

I think it's the first time anyone's used the word brain trust in the context of James Uthmeyer. And I guess that's really the ticket here. I mean, we could call them campaign contributions, PAC donations, some might call them kickbacks, but that really seems to be the circle or the cycle here. Right. With a lot of these contractors who have made, let's be clear, some of them tens of millions of dollars in a year or less. And where does that money go? In addition to the pockets of. I remember you reporting that like. Like some of these companies have existed for about the weeks before Alligator Alcatraz. So some of these were like brand new LLC in somebody's townhouse or whatever the hell they were that just popped up. And all of a sudden, these major duty donors to the Republican supermajority in this state are getting major duty contracts.

[Jason Garcia]

Right?

[Billy Corben]

Right.

[Roy]

Yeah.

[Jason Garcia]

There was one company that was a brand new company, and this, I think it's the Tampa Bay Times, gets credit for flagging this. It made a $10,000 donation to. To the Rep. Of Florida just days before getting one of the initial contracts on this facility. So there's been a lot of that. And to your point, the amount of money that have gone to some of these contractors, it's. It's more than $100 million or close to $100 million in some case. One of the. One of the biggest vendors that's gotten a lot of attention is essentially a porta Potty vendor. Duty calls. It's been paid more than $90 million just over the past year operating this facility. And where the irony comes in there is. So a lot of people have used that example as to show what a waste this facility has been, what a waste of money. And you see a lot of politicians in Florida, particularly Ron DeSantis, just recently did this Senate. Ben Albritton, the president of the Florida Senate, also got really sort of snooty about this, where they'll hear that and they'll say, you know, this isn't just porta Potties, you know, this is in an environmentally sensitive area. We have to bring them the water in, and then we have to ship it out off site and treat it. So we're not doing any contamination, like. Yeah, exactly. That's why you don't build an immigrant prison in the middle of the Everglades.

[Billy Corben]

Also, duty Calls. I mean, they should get doctors for the Florida dad pun there. Like, not. I think. I think puns are good. But, like, that is not. I mean, come on now. So, I mean, I'm not talking about any specific contract here, but you threw out a bunch of numbers. And I mean, let's just look at a $250,000 donation on a $10 million contract. If that, that's. If that equation exists. That's a 2.5%. That's less than sales tax. So that kind of vigor, that kind of kickback, I mean, that seems. That seems pretty low rent. Like, that seems a pretty good roi, I should say, on these deals. And is this the nature of what's been going on? I mean, can you say. I don't want to say a majority, but. But can we round that. Like, most of the companies and individuals or principals of these companies who have gotten these major duty contracts on this. You know, remember Roy, on this show at the beginning of this, I think Tomas Kennedy was actually here at that time, too. We were talking about, this is a concentration camp, it is dangerous, it is unnecessary, it is a waste of money. And here we are. Like, all of those things have come to pass. There was just a court decision this week that went against the state, wasn't there, Jason?

[Jason Garcia]

That's right. That's right. This was dealing with providing phone access to detainees or the state was complaining that would be too expensive. The same state that again, has just spent half a billion dollars on this place in the first place. Right. And to your point, you know, I wouldn't go so far as to say, like, all of it is. Is the result of campaign contributions or something like that, but certainly it's all in the mix. Right. So many of these vendors are politically plugged in vendors. They've got some of the biggest lobbying firms in Tallahassee. A number of them are represented by the two firms that, that employ Ron DeSantis biggest political fundraisers in Florida. Right. And these are all. A lot of. These are government contractors in a lot of ways. They're either emergency management contractors or they're. They do a lot of procurement, selling supplies to the state. And all of these companies make sure to invest money in campaign contributions and lobbyists and stuff. And it's all part of that kind of sort of what I often call like, conventional corruption, the sort of legalized corruption that we've allowed to sort of take root in this state and country.

[Billy Corben]

So before we go, Jason, donde esta the reimbursement? Where's the governor siphoned this half a billion dollars from. Because this was not budgeted for anywhere, he unilaterally, I would argue misappropriated, if not outright stole this money from, clearly from a line item somewhere in a budget. And that is not a rounding error. Half a billion dollars. And finally, from day one, they've been promising that fema, I guess, from the federal government was going to pay us back, but we have not seen. Penny one.

[Representative Anna Eskamani]

Right.

[Jason Garcia]

Yeah, this is, this actually gets into some of the really serious sort of like lawlessness nature around some of this stuff. So, so where he got the money from? A couple of years ago, the legislature set up essentially an emergency management fund that was supposed to be for responding and preparing for hurricanes. And it's this pot of money that the governor can tap and spend at will in a declared state of emergency. Well, as soon as they created this slush fund for him, he declared a state of emergency on immigration, which he has now extended for nearly three years. We've been in one state of emergency for nearly three years. But that's how he's been able to tap into this fund and pull out half a billion dollars to spend on, again, this, this marketing gimmick. This, this chance to sort of like grab national attention. And in terms of the reimbursement. So the reason Florida has not gotten reimbursement yet is they built. This facility was built illegally. When the, when the federal government builds a major facility like this, they're supposed to do something called an environmental impact study. And guess what wouldn't have worked out so well. An environmental impact study on building a

[Billy Corben]

prison in the Everglades on the backs of manatee.

[Jason Garcia]

Exactly. Right, right, exactly. Yeah.

[Tomas Kennedy]

Yeah.

[Jason Garcia]

They're like painting the place with manatee blood. And so the, the.

[Billy Corben]

This manatees by band in high school, by the way.

[Jason Garcia]

That's right. This was the subject of one of the lawsuits filed to shut this place down. And, and what they've been arguing in court is, oh, this isn't a federal facility. This is a state facility. And one of the. The ways the fig leafs they've been using on that is the feds haven't actually given us any money for it yet. Yet. So they have deliberately withheld, delayed paying the state of Florida back until they can get through to the. Until they shut it down. Right. The state said the feds will give the state the money once it no longer matters. And it was all a way to allow them to build this facility in absolute defiance of federal law.

[Billy Corben]

Garbage in, garbage out. Immortal words of Miami Mayor Ponzi Postalita. Former MAYOR if you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. Yeah. This was Iraq from the jump, and it's exiting the scene as a racket. And all we have to show for it is a bunch of human rights violations and showing the world over that we are no longer this sort of beacon of hope and justice, not only for immigrants, but for the rule of law and the Constitution and human rights. So I guess mission accomplished. Ron DeSantis he said it was a success. Jason garcia seeking rents fl.com I'll see an alligator. Alcatraz, mi amigo.

[Jason Garcia]

Oh, my God, I hope not.

[Billy Corben]

Cocaine's.