Florida
Entries whose effect landed somewhere in Florida (FL) — a city, a county, a campus, a detention facility — whichever government acted. Federal conduct inside Florida counts here.
This is not the same set as Florida's jurisdiction page, which records the 43 entries where Florida's own government was the acting authority, wherever those events happened. The two overlap and neither contains the other: place and power are separate facts, and statewide acts appear there and not here.
29 entries · 21 places
One square per place, sized equally, coloured by how many entries landed there. Ordered most-documented first: a grid of equal tiles has no reading order of its own.
Miami city 4 entries
Federal Bureau of Prisons held transferred ICE detainees in Miami facility with failed air conditioning and water
On July 15, 2026, wives of men held at the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami publicly alleged inhumane conditions — failed air conditioning, unreliable drinking water, denied medications, and one detainee held in solitary confinement — after their husbands were transferred there from the wildfire-evacuated Krome Detention Center. The Bureau of Prisons acknowledged a July 1 water-pressure problem and a July 6 air-conditioning chiller malfunction but said both were repaired, while families said conditions had not meaningfully improved.
Florida International University disciplined seven students with reprimands and compelled 'reflection' videos over silent anti-ICE protest
On June 29, 2026, Florida International University issued written reprimands to seven students and ordered each to record a compelled two-minute "reflection" video on the university's indoor-protest policy, punishing them for a March 13, 2026 silent protest against FIU's cooperation with immigration enforcement. The students, members of a group called ICEBreakers, had stood silently displaying "ICE OFF FIU" shirts for a few minutes during a campus event and left without disrupting it -- an account FIU's own internal review confirmed. The university nonetheless charged seven of the roughly 20 participating students and threatened a hold on their registration and financial aid if the videos were not submitted.
DHS denies World Cup referee Omar Artan entry at Miami airport under Somalia travel ban
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials denied entry to Omar Abdulkadir Artan, a Somali national and one of FIFA's 52 selected referees for the 2026 World Cup, when he arrived at Miami International Airport on June 6, 2026, despite his holding a valid U.S. visa. DHS said on June 8 that Artan was "determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns" — Somalia is among the countries named in the administration's June 2025 travel-ban proclamation — and FIFA confirmed he will be unable to train or officiate at the tournament.
Miami-Dade College board transferred downtown land to Trump library foundation without public notice
On September 23, 2025, Miami-Dade College's Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting with no public notice and voted to transfer a 2.63-acre downtown Miami parcel -- appraised at $67 million and potentially worth up to $300 million -- into a state fund controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which then routed the land to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. The college received no compensation for the land and has faced up to $300,000 in its own legal fees defending the transfer against a Sunshine Law lawsuit.
South Florida Detention Facility ("Alligator Alcatraz") facility · in Ochopee 3 entries
DHS inspector general found Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' held detainees in outdoor cages mislabeled 'calming areas'
A Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report published September 11, 2026 found that Florida's now-closed "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Ochopee confined 79 detainees in small indoor and outdoor metal enclosures, roughly 4 feet by 4 feet and 16-18 square feet, that staff called "calming areas" -- for an average of about 59 minutes and up to nearly two hours between July 17, 2025 and January 18, 2026, with at least one documented case tied to a detainee's noncompliance with a lawful command rather than de-escalation. The report also found general-population housing providing as little as 28 square feet per detainee against Florida's 75-square-foot jail standard, food freezers held at 10-14°F, unsanitary drinking-water containers, showers limited to three times weekly amid insect infestation, and Special Management Unit detainees without operable phones or legal-material access. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had obligated $608.4 million to Florida for the facility, which operated under a state-federal 287(g) delegation and closed in June 2026.
Florida's emergency-management division resisted a federal order for Alligator Alcatraz detainee legal phone access, calling it unfeasible
Florida's Division of Emergency Management asked a federal judge to pause a late-March 2026 preliminary injunction requiring at least one working phone per 25 detainees for confidential legal calls at the state's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration lockup in the Everglades, telling the court that adding phone service would be "entirely unfeasible" and cost roughly $180,000 up front plus $6,000 weekly. State records showed the Division had already spent about $34.2 million on technology, internet, communications, and surveillance at the facility, most of it to a single vendor. As of April 2, 2026 the site held 1,383 detainees.
Alligator Alcatraz guards Trejos and Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee during Jan. 25 transfer at Florida facility
On Jan. 25, 2026, Critical Response Strategies corrections officers Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee Rigoberto Rodriguez Arce, a Cuban national ICE had detained weeks earlier, during a chaotic detainee transfer at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Ochopee. A witness said Trejos slammed Rodriguez Arce to the ground and struck him after handcuffed detainees banged their cuffs on benches, and that Seenaraine later punched him in another room; Trejos's attorney says surveillance video instead shows a single "compliance strike" after Rodriguez Arce spat at him. Collier County prosecutors charged both officers with misdemeanor battery in June 2026, both pleaded not guilty, and the case became public in September 2026.
Fort Pierce city 2 entries
DOJ issued grand jury subpoena to Comey associate Daniel Richman in revived leak investigation
On August 31, 2026, federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida issued a grand jury subpoena to Daniel Richman, a longtime friend and legal adviser to former FBI Director James Comey, reviving a years-old investigation into whether Comey used Richman to leak sensitive memos about his conversations with President Trump to The New York Times. The subpoena is the first expansion of the investigation to reach Richman himself since Joe DiGenova, a Trump-aligned former U.S. Attorney, took over its leadership after career prosecutors resisted pursuing a broader "grand conspiracy" case against former CIA Director John Brennan.
DOJ installs Trump legal ally Joe diGenova as Counselor to the Attorney General assigned to the Brennan probe in Fort Pierce
On April 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice installed Joseph diGenova — a longtime Washington attorney, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and a Trump legal-team adviser during the Mueller investigation who has publicly backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election — as Counselor to the Attorney General in the Southern District of Florida, assigned to the federal criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan. The appointment came one day after the Justice Department removed career national-security prosecutor Maria Medetis Long from the Brennan probe after she resisted bringing charges career prosecutors judged unsupported by the evidence. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, seeking to retain the job after President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in April over dissatisfaction at the pace of cases against Trump's political adversaries, drove the appointment.
Key West city 2 entries
Border Patrol arrested Key West father of deployed USS Lincoln sailor; DHS held him for deportation despite no criminal record
On August 22, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, a 48-year-old Key West, Florida handyman, during a traffic stop while his son Joshua was nine months into a deployment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Aviles, a Nicaragua native who has lived in the U.S. for about 19 years, was placed in ICE custody pending deportation; his wife said he holds a work permit and the family says he has no criminal record, while DHS confirmed the arrest, said he entered the country illegally, and did not dispute the absence of a criminal record. DHS said in a statement that "having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws."
Monroe County pulled tourism funding from Key West Pride events, citing Florida's DEI law before its effective date
On May 6, 2026, Monroe County, Florida withdrew roughly $200,000 in annual tourism funding, including about $75,000 in marketing support for Key West Pride, from LGBTQ events organized through the Key West Business Guild. A senior assistant county attorney's letter to the Guild cited Senate Bill 1134, the state law barring local governments from funding or promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion activity, as the basis, even though that law does not take effect until January 1, 2027.
Orlando city 2 entries
Florida AG Uthmeier threatened legal action against Irish dance organizations to force exclusion of transgender girl from girls' competition
On June 26, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha (CLRG) and the Irish Dance Teachers' Association of North America (IDTANA) threatening legal action unless the organizations excluded a transgender girl from girls' divisions at the upcoming North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. Uthmeier cited Florida's public-accommodation sex-discrimination protections and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, demanding written compliance by June 30 or his office would take enforcement action. CLRG and IDTANA both permit competitors to enter divisions consistent with their gender identity.
ICE and Orange County Jail unlawfully detained Venezuelan student without charges for 18 days
On January 7, 2026, Florida authorities arrested Javier Gimenez Rivero, a Venezuelan high school student in Orlando with a pending asylum claim and valid federal work authorization, and Orange County Jail held him for 18 days with no criminal charges, warrant, or hearing under an ICE immigration hold. Orange County Corrections confirmed it extended his detention past the jail's own 48-hour limit by "rebooking" him and other ICE-hold detainees under new booking numbers each time the clock lapsed. U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton Jr. found the hold carried no independent lawful authority and ordered Rivero's immediate release.
Big Coppitt Key city 1 entry
Monroe County, Florida sheriff's deputy misused police databases and license-plate cameras to track and pull over woman he met on TV set
On February 19, 2026, Monroe County Sheriff's Office Deputy Lamar Eliseo Roman pulled over a woman on U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys using a license-plate-reader hotlist alert, the culmination of two weeks in which he repeatedly searched sheriff's-office and state databases for her personal information. Roman had met the woman on February 3, 2026 while working security on the set of Apple TV+'s "Bad Monkey," and investigators say his in-car camera showed him driving into oncoming traffic during the pursuit that preceded the stop. He was fired and arrested on a felony database-misuse charge on March 10, 2026.
Boynton Beach city 1 entry
Palm Beach Post investigation reveals Boynton Beach police sergeant misused restricted database to collect women's personal data
A Palm Beach Post investigation published July 6, 2026, found that Boynton Beach Police Sergeant Fabrice Jeanniton had repeatedly used the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's restricted driver database to look up the names, addresses, birth dates, and driver-license photos of women outside any legitimate investigation. Jeanniton had been reprimanded for the same conduct on a different restricted database in 2013, and resigned in lieu of termination in November 2025.
Bushnell city 1 entry
Sumter County, Florida detective misused police databases and Flock cameras to track husband's ex-wife, was fired and arrested
Sumter County, Florida Sheriff's Office Detective Brandy Almany was arrested and fired on July 23, 2026, after an internal audit found she had used restricted law-enforcement databases -- including the Flock license-plate-reader network, Florida's DAVID driver database, and the Comprehensive Case Information System -- to track her husband's ex-wife for personal reasons. Investigators said Almany created fake electronic records citing unrelated case numbers to make the searches appear to be legitimate investigations, and she was charged with official misconduct and multiple counts of offenses against computer users. Sheriff Patrick Breeden suspended all Flock camera use departmentwide and ordered a full audit of database access following the arrest.
Clearwater city 1 entry
ProPublica investigation revealed Pinellas County Jail systematically rebooked immigrant detainees to evade 72-hour ICE hold limit
A ProPublica investigation published August 27, 2026 found that Pinellas County Jail in Clearwater, Florida repeatedly released and re-admitted immigrant detainees at 72-hour intervals to evade the legal limit on how long county jails may hold people on civil ICE detainers, rebooking at least 174 immigrants two or more times between July 2025 and July 2026 -- a volume unmatched by any other jail nationwide. Soumia Bensalah, a French-Moroccan woman with a pending green-card application, was shuttled to an ICE hold room and back five times in December 2025 before being deported to France, while a separate Mexican woman was rebooked ten times, spending a cumulative 26 days in the jail. DHS and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office defended the jail's practices on the record, while legal experts called the pattern unconstitutional detention that typically occurs in secret.
Doral city 1 entry
Trump announced 2026 G20 summit at his Doral resort, directing foreign-government spending to his own property
President Trump announced on September 5, 2025, that the United States would host the 2026 G20 summit at his Trump National Doral Miami resort in Doral, Florida. The White House claimed the venue would host the event "at-cost" with no profit to Trump, but even at-cost hosting generates substantial indirect value — global media exposure, advance security expenditures, and ancillary bookings — for a property Trump personally owns. Trump abandoned an identical proposal to host the G7 at Doral in 2019 following bipartisan congressional criticism; he is now proceeding without seeking congressional consent as required by the Foreign Emoluments Clause.
Haines City city 1 entry
Haines City, Fla. officer arrested after 717 Flock camera searches of estranged wife's car
On August 11, 2026, Haines City, Florida police officer Christopher Goodson, 31, was arrested on one count of offenses against computer users and one count of official misconduct, both third-degree felonies. An arrest affidavit found Goodson entered his estranged wife's license plate into the department's Flock Safety camera database 717 times between September 1, 2024 and June 30, 2026, often logging false law-enforcement justifications for the searches. Goodson disclosed the searches to a supervisor only after learning a reporter had contacted his estranged wife about the pattern, and has indicated he intends to resign.
Jacksonville city 1 entry
ICE kept Venezuelan woman detained after an immigration judge dismissed her removal case, despite her marriage to a U.S. citizen
On April 20, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept Gabriela Sousa, a Venezuelan woman who entered the United States legally on humanitarian parole in 2023, detained at an immigration facility in the Jacksonville, Florida area after an immigration judge dismissed her removal case. ICE held her while the government weighed whether to use its 30-day window to appeal the dismissal, even though she is married to U.S. citizen Brandon Garrison and had a spousal petition pending since November 2025. She had been held for roughly six months following an October 2025 domestic-dispute arrest that produced no criminal charges.
Kissimmee city 1 entry
Polk County deputies and ICE detained injured Ecuadorian mother and daughter at Florida hospital, refusing to show a warrant
On August 21, 2026, Polk County Sheriff's deputies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents handcuffed and removed Grace Stephanie Calero Cabanilla, 39, and her daughter Giulianna Mía Carriel Calero, 19, from HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital in Kissimmee, one day after a car crash left both women hospitalized. A deputy questioned Calero Cabanilla about her immigration status while she was still being treated, then contacted ICE, which lodged detainers describing both women as having overstayed their visas; family members say Calero Cabanilla held a pending asylum case and work permit and that her daughter's visa was valid until 2030, claims neither ICE nor the sheriff's office has addressed.
Largo city 1 entry
Florida Department of Financial Services sent armed investigators to question Largo veteran over postcard critical of CFO Ingoglia
The Florida Department of Financial Services' Criminal Investigations Division opened a threat assessment in September 2025 after 77-year-old Army veteran James O'Gara mailed a postcard reading "You lack values" to the office of Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. On October 1, 2025, armed state agents in bullet-resistant vests arrived at the O'Garas' Largo home and questioned Cathy O'Gara about her husband before the investigation closed with a finding of "no credible threat." Records later obtained by Reason showed then-division director Simon Blank had ordered the assessment on September 15 and Lt. Col. James Evangelina directed staff to verify O'Gara's identity.
Niceville city 1 entry
Niceville, Florida officer used Flock camera network to stalk fellow officer, harass spouse
On October 10, 2025, the Niceville Police Department in Florida arrested Officer Coty Wayne Hall after an internal audit covering January through October 2025 found he had made nearly 200 unauthorized searches of the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader network and other restricted law-enforcement databases, using the results to track and harass a fellow officer and that officer's spouse. Hall was charged with violating Florida Statute 815.06(2)(a), covering unauthorized computer access, and the City of Niceville fired him after the allegations became public.
Orange Park city 1 entry
Clay County school board fired teacher Kelly Brock-Sanchez over off-duty Charlie Kirk posts as Florida sought to revoke her license
On October 2, 2025, the Clay County, Florida school board terminated Exceptional Student Education teacher Kelly Brock-Sanchez, acting on Superintendent David Broskie's September 25 recommendation, over posts she had made about activist Charlie Kirk's death on a private, pseudonymous Facebook account while off duty. Days earlier, on September 22, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas announced he had found probable cause to seek permanent revocation of her teaching certificate, part of a statewide campaign to discipline educators whose Kirk-related posts he deemed sanctionable.
Palm Beach International Airport facility 1 entry
Florida renamed Palm Beach International Airport for President Trump under a law giving his company perpetual free use of the name
On July 9, 2026, Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida — a county-owned public airport serving more than 8 million passengers a year, minutes from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate — officially became President Donald J. Trump International Airport, the first U.S. airport renamed for a sitting president. The renaming was carried out under a Florida law that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in March 2026, which requires an agreement granting Trump and his organization "perpetual and unrestricted" use of the name at no cost. Trump's trademark-licensing company, DTTM Operations, had filed multiple applications on the new name in February 2026, before the enabling bill became law.
Sarasota city 1 entry
Sarasota, Fla. officer misused Flock and DAVID databases 335 times to track ex-partner's vehicle; fired, arrested
On August 19, 2026, the Sarasota Police Department fired and arrested Officer Cory Waiters, 38, after an internal and criminal investigation found he had misused the department's Flock license-plate-reader network and Florida's DAVID driver database to repeatedly search his ex-partner's vehicle. A USA Today reporter's independent analysis of Flock audit logs first flagged the pattern -- 335 searches of the same plate over roughly two months, including 121 in a single day -- and the reporter's August 6 email to the department triggered the internal affairs and criminal investigations. Waiters was charged with felony offenses against computer users/systems, felony official misconduct, and misdemeanor violation of public records law.
St. Augustine city 1 entry
St. Johns County officials and operatives mailed counterfeit GOP voter guide to deceive Republican primary voters
On or about August 9, 2024, five people -- St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold, County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, St. Augustine Beach Commissioner and then-Mayor Dylan Rumrell, political consultant Briana Jordan, and Jamie Lynn Johnson -- allegedly produced and mailed tens of thousands of counterfeit voter guides to St. Johns County Republican primary voters ahead of the August 20, 2024 primary. The guide copied the St. Johns County GOP's logo and branding and falsely presented itself as the party's official endorsement slate, but promoted a different set of candidates, including Whitehurst and Rumrell themselves, and omitted the funding-source disclaimer required under Florida law. In July 2026, Florida prosecutors filed conspiracy and unauthorized-voter-guide charges against all five, with an added evidence-tampering felony charge against Jordan.
St. Cloud city 1 entry
ICE deported Colombian man shielded from return to Colombia to DR Congo under third-country removal deal
On April 15, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed Jorge Andres Cubillos, a Colombian man who had lived in St. Cloud, Florida with his wife and four children since 2018, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite a 2022 immigration judge's grant of withholding of removal that barred his return to Colombia. Cubillos was flagged after ICE lodged a detainer following his arrest on a domestic battery charge, and he was sent to the DRC as part of the first group of Latin American migrants deported there under a new U.S. third-country arrangement. He arrived to be held in a hotel near Kinshasa, separated from his family and reporting deteriorating health while authorities decided his fate.
Tallahassee city 1 entry
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fired three employees over Charlie Kirk-related social media posts
On September 15, 2025, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced on its official social media account that it had fired biologist Britney Brown after the account Libs of TikTok circulated her private Instagram repost mocking Charlie Kirk's assassination. FWC separately terminated employees Haley Massung and Taylor Ozimek that same week over their own social media comments about Kirk's death; Ozimek's termination letter is also dated September 15, 2025. FWC Executive Director Roger Young was later named as a defendant when all three sued the agency over the firings.