Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as Alligator Alcatraz began in the past few days. DeSantis said Friday that the flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention center to other countries. He expects that number to increase soon. Officials say two or three flights have happened, though they didn't say which countries those flights headed to. Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane, but DeSantis and other Republicans have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, a move that could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants. That's according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. The transfer of that border zone to military control — and making it part of an Army installation — could allow the Trump administration to get around a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil, but one legal expert said the move is likely to be challenged in the courts.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. immigration and military authorities say they have transferred exclusively Venezuelan immigrants who are subject to…