U.S. Border Patrol agents stage for an operation in the Winn Dixie parking lot in Key Largo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
Photo by Nick Rodriguez
Federal agents detained 12 people during an immigration enforcement operation in the Florida Keys last week.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations issued a press release Friday saying its agents participated in the operation with the Border Patrol on Nov. 21. A CBP Blackhawk helicopter was also used in the operation, the agency said.
Customs said the 12 people agents took into custody were illegally in the U.S. from countries including Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala. The agency said the people were taken to the Border Patrol’s station in the Middle Keys city of Marathon to be processed for removal from the country.
Agents were pulling cars over that morning in the southbound lanes of U.S. 1 at mile marker 105 in front of the Winn-Dixie supermarket in Key Largo, a witness told the Miami Herald.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent approaches a car pulled over during an immigration operation in Key Largo Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. Photo by Nick Rodriguez
Customs said all of them had “prior charges and convictions” for offenses including re-entry after deportation, driving under the influence, illegal concealed carry of a weapon, drug possession with a weapon, battery and domestic violence.
As of Friday, none of the people’s cases have shown up in public federal court records.
Increased immigration enforcement in the Florida Keys
Since the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have ramped up operations in the Keys, according to court records.
Much of the enforcement effort appears to be happening around the Big Pine Key area in the Lower Keys.
But, increased operations appear to be happening in the Upper Keys as well. The Florida Keys Weekly reported that on Nov. 17, a man and 16-year-old boy were pulled over on the way to drop the teen off at Coral Shores High School on Plantation Key, where he is a student.
Both were detained, the newspaper reported. ICE could not immediately be reached for comment on where the boy is being held. Monroe County School District Deputy Superintendent Amber Acevedo told the Herald that she “did not have specific information” about the incident.
On Sunday, Border Patrol agents pulled over a Ford pickup truck at mile marker 99 in Key Largo because “law enforcement databases indicated that the registered owner is an illegal alien residing in the United States,” a Border Patrol complaint filed Tuesday states.
A handcuffed man sits in a U.S. Customs Air and Marine Operations boat off Rodriguez Key Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. U.S. Customs and Border Protection
According to the complaint, the driver, Lucas Jimenez-Ramos is a citizen of Guatemala illegally living in the U.S. The complaint states that he was previously deported in October 2019. He now faces a charge of “re-entry of a removed alien,” the complaint states.
Also this week, a Customs Air and Marine Operations crew stopped a boat Tuesday off Rodriguez Key, a small uninhabited island just offshore of Key Largo, to conduct a “vessel document check,” the agency said in a statement.
A man on the boat was a Venezuelan citizen “illegally present in the United States after deportation,” the statement said. He was also taken to the Border Patrol’s station in Marathon to be processed for removal.
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
Educators are embracing AI and career and technical education (CTE) as keys to preparing students for their future after high school, according to the 2025 Savvas Educator Index from K-12 learning solutions provider Savvas Learning Company.
The annual national survey of K-12 teachers and administrators offers a pulse check on what educators see as the most pressing challenges and promising solutions in U.S. education this coming school year and beyond.
“Educators are embracing new possibilities for student success and are eager for innovative tools that empower more effective, relevant learning experiences,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “This year’s Savvas Educator Index highlights a collective demand for solutions that meet the moment, including AI and CTE, without compromising durable, essential skills like critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.”
AI in classrooms? Only if it builds real-world skills
Educators are cautiously optimistic about AI, with 66 percent planning to increase AI use in the 2025-26 school year–up from 57 percent last year. Of those who teach or oversee high school, more than half (56 percent) believe understanding AI is “very” or “extremely” important for students’ future success.
But that optimism is tempered by concern.
Only 5 percent of educators are confident that their students know how to use AI responsibly and critically.
The majority (70 percent) of educators say they have received no professional development to support students in learning to use AI for schoolwork.
Nearly half (43 percent) of all educators believe current AI use is negatively impacting students’ development of durable skills like communication and critical thinking. This increases to 51 percent among grade 6-8 teachers and 68 percent among high school teachers.
The disparity between educators’ optimism around implementation and concern around students’ durable skills sends a clear signal: educators want AI tools that come with guardrails, guidance for implementation, and controls meant to develop those skills, not create shortcuts.
CTE Is the leading model for future workforce readiness
While traditional academic routes like Advanced Placement (AP) courses have fallen behind in educator favor, CTE is the clear frontrunner when it comes to preparing students for life beyond high school, according to the survey.
More than double the number of educators selected CTE (63 percent) as the top program to best prepare students for success after high school compared to those who selected AP courses (26 percent).
Among educators who believe CTE programs help students be successful after high school, 87 percent identified job-ready skills and technical training and 79 percent identified early exposure to career pathways and interests as the key benefits students gain from participating in CTE programs while in high school.
Among teachers who believe CTE programs help students be successful after high school, 77 percent said CTE enhances students’ employability after high school; that number jumps to 79 percent among administrators.
Dual enrollment is a critical bridge to success
As part of the broader shift toward workforce readiness, the survey found dual enrollment programs are also powerful tools to help students prepare for college and career pathways. Among high school educators whose schools offer these courses, the benefits are clear and compelling.
The opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school was cited by 88 percent of educators as a major advantage.
Reduced tuition costs followed closely behind as a major advantage at 75 percent, and a smoother transition to postsecondary education at 70 percent, underscoring dual enrollment’s role in making higher education more affordable and accessible.
Beyond cost savings, educators emphasized the importance of early exposure to college-level work and future career pathways, aligning with a national push to introduce students to postsecondary options earlier in their academic journeys.
Without relevance, students struggle to stay motivated
Educators are also sounding the alarm on a persistent and systemic issue: student motivation.
Three-fourths of educators surveyed (75 percent) cited lack of motivation as a leading challenge for the coming school year, with half of those respondents saying it is the top challenge students face.
Sixty-four percent of high school educators said motivation is a major barrier to earning a living wage after high school, and 45 percent said it hinders students’ college success.
These concerns further reinforce the demand for learning that feels connected to students’ lives and futures, and educators overwhelmingly point to intentional use of AI-powered tools and CTE offerings as ways to deliver student success beyond their K-12 education.
I’ll admit that I use AI. I’ve asked it to help me figure out challenging Excel formulas that otherwise would have taken me 45 minutes and a few tutorials to troubleshoot. I’ve used it to help me analyze or organize massive amounts of information. I’ve even asked it to help me devise a running training program aligning with my goals and fitting within my schedule. AI is a fantastic tool–and that’s the point. It’s a tool, not a replacement for thinking.
As AI tools become more capable, more intuitive, and more integrated into our daily lives, I’ve found myself wondering: Are we growing too dependent on AI to do our thinking for us?
This question isn’t just philosophical. It has real consequences, especially for students and young learners. A recent study published in the journal Societies reports that people who used AI tools consistently showed a decline in critical thinking performance. In fact, “whether someone used AI tools was a bigger predictor of a person’s thinking skills than any other factor, including educational attainment.” That’s a staggering finding because it suggests that using AI might not just be a shortcut. It could be a cognitive detour.
The atrophy of the mind
The term “digital dementia” has been used to describe the deterioration of cognitive abilities as a result of over-reliance on digital devices. It’s a phrase originally associated with excessive screen time and memory decline, but it’s found new relevance in the era of generative AI. When we depend on a machine to generate our thoughts, answer our questions, or write our essays, what happens to the neural pathways that govern our own critical thinking? And will the upcoming era of agentic AI expedite this decline?
Cognitive function, like physical fitness, follows the rule of “use it or lose it.” Just as muscles weaken without regular use, the brain’s ability to evaluate, synthesize, and critique information can atrophy when not exercised. This is especially concerning in the context of education, where young learners are still building those critical neural pathways.
In short: Students need to learn how to think before they delegate that thinking to a machine.
Can you still think critically with AI?
Yes, but only if you’re intentional about it.
AI doesn’t relieve you of the responsibility to think–in many cases, it demands even more critical thinking. AI produces hallucinations, falsifies claims, and can be misleading. If you blindly accept AI’s output, you’re not saving time, you’re surrendering clarity.
Using AI effectively requires discernment. You need to know what you’re asking, evaluate what you’re given, and verify the accuracy of the result. In other words, you need to think before, during, and after using AI.
The “source, please” problem
One of the simplest ways to teach critical thinking is also the most annoying–just ask my teenage daughter. When she presents a fact or claim that she saw online, I respond with some version of: “What’s your source?” It drives her crazy, but it forces her to dig deeper, check assumptions, and distinguish between fact and fiction. It’s an essential habit of mind.
But here’s the thing: AI doesn’t always give you the source. And when it does, sometimes it’s wrong, or the source isn’t reputable. Sometimes it requires a deeper dive (and a few more prompts) to find answers, especially to complicated topics. AI often provides quick, confident answers that fall apart under scrutiny.
So why do we keep relying on it? Why are AI responses allowed to settle arguments, or serve as “truth” for students when the answers may be anything but?
The lure of speed and simplicity
It’s easier. It’s faster. And let’s face it: It feels like thinking. But there’s a difference between getting an answer and understanding it. AI gives us answers. It doesn’t teach us how to ask better questions or how to judge when an answer is incomplete or misleading.
This process of cognitive offloading (where we shift mental effort to a device) can be incredibly efficient. But if we offload too much, too early, we risk weakening the mental muscles needed for sustained critical thinking.
Implications for educators
So, what does this mean for the classroom?
First, educators must be discerning about how they use AI tools. These technologies aren’t going away, and banning them outright is neither realistic nor wise. But they must be introduced with guardrails. Students need explicit instruction on how to think alongside AI, not instead of it.
Second, teachers should emphasize the importance of original thought, iterative questioning, and evidence-based reasoning. Instead of asking students to simply generate answers, ask them to critique AI-generated ones. Challenge them to fact-check, source, revise, and reflect. In doing so, we keep their cognitive skills active and growing.
And finally, for young learners, we may need to draw a harder line. Students who haven’t yet formed the foundational skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation shouldn’t be skipping those steps. Just like you wouldn’t hand a calculator to a child who hasn’t yet learned to add, we shouldn’t hand over generative AI tools to students who haven’t learned how to write, question, or reason.
A tool, not a crutch
AI is here to stay. It’s powerful, transformative, and, when used well, can enhance our work and learning. But we must remember that it’s a tool, not a replacement for human thought. The moment we let it think for us is the moment we start to lose the capacity to think for ourselves.
If we want the next generation to be capable, curious, and critically-minded, we must protect and nurture those skills. And that means using AI thoughtfully, sparingly, and always with a healthy dose of skepticism. AI is certainly proving it has staying power, so it’s in all our best interests to learn to adapt. However, let’s adapt with intentionality, and without sacrificing our critical thinking skills or succumbing to any form of digital dementia.
Laura Hakala, Magic EdTech
Laura Hakala is the Director of Online Program Design and Efficacy for Magic EdTech. With nearly two decades of leadership and strategic innovation experience, Laura is a go-to resource for content, problem-solving, and strategic planning. Laura is passionate about DE&I and is a fierce advocate, dedicated to making meaningful changes. When it comes to content management, digital solutions, and forging strategic partnerships, Laura’s expertise shines through. She’s not just shaping the future; she’s paving the way for a more inclusive and impactful tomorrow.
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Like many educators, I have strong feelings about the abundance of artificial intelligence now used in schools. Some teachers choose to take a Gandalf approach to AI and declare that it “SHALL NOT PASS!” the doors to their classroom. Others adopt what could be called a Champman’s Homer attitude, one of awe and wonder at the vast new horizon of possibility laid out before them. Mine has been an equal mix of excitement and frustration. I believe there really are some powerful, transformative technologies out there that have the potential to revolutionize education in countless ways. Unfortunately, right now, we are not implementing them particularly well.
So, how do we introduce AI into our classrooms so that it elevates student curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking? I believe there are five keys to making this a successful reality:
Vision: There are many ways to be a great teacher and build a positive learning environment, and each school has its own unique flavor of excellence. The presence of AI shouldn’t change schools’ fundamental visions; rather, leaders should help to identify ways in which new technologies can work in service of their broader mission. Grounding AI in that reality is where we start–as you embark on your AI journey, it helps to know clearly where you’re headed!
Agreement: Consensus is vital when it comes to including AI in schools.If it’s going to be used, it’s important to build broad agreement on where, when, and how it should be used. This can be challenging, but it’s not impossible. By gathering diverse stakeholders together–teachers, parents, students, staff–schools can draft social contracts that specify AI’s role and limits in learning. This gets everyone pulling in the same direction and invested in a shared goal.
Learning: One interesting aspect of AI is that right now, everybody is learning how to use it–including teachers! There are so many different tools and strategies that can be used to spark deep learning. Teachers need training that helps them to explore these possibilities and get hands-on experience, seeing for themselves just what these tools can do for them. That way, they are better equipped to help students use AI ethically, responsibly, and effectively.
Unleashing: Once teachers have been exposed to the different ways AI tools can effectively promote deeper learning, we want to unleash them in the classroom. Every classroom has its own unique set of needs, and teachers should test whether these new AI tools and techniques have a positive impact on their students. One way to think about it is to think of the school as a beehive. Bees don’t move together in a swarm–instead, they spread out, searching for the most productive areas and bringing their findings back to the hive. In the same way, teachers should take their new knowledge into the classroom and test to see how well it performs before sharing their findings with everyone else.
Evaluation: Every educator knows that making mistakes is a part of the learning process. With every new technology will comes drawbacks, unforeseen problems, and well-laid plans that don’t reach fruition. What matters is our willingness to evaluate what works, what doesn’t, and change our approach accordingly. One helpful strategy is to have teachers get together in groups and share what is and isn’t working for them. This allows the best practices to be shared throughout the community while also connecting educators who are facing similar problems.
All technology can be used for good or for ill. While the growing presence of AI can make some teachers nervous, it doesn’t change the fundamental mission of education or the role we play in fostering student growth. Instead, teachers and administrators should view this as an opportunity to further transform our classrooms into spaces that spark student inquiry. Let’s embrace the challenge before us and work together to build a future for our students where technology amplifies their learning but never defines it.
Ben Talsma, Van Andel Institute for Education
Ben Talsma is a Learning Specialist at Van Andel Institute for Education, a Michigan-based education nonprofit dedicated to creating classrooms where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking thrive.
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Hurricane Debby washes $1 million in cocaine onto Florida beach
Updated: 1:54 AM PDT Aug 6, 2024
Hurricane Debby washed 70 pounds of cocaine ashore on a Florida beach over the weekend.According to Chief Patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II, the cocaine was split among 25 packages and washed ashore in the Florida Keys on Islamorada. The island is approximately 80 miles east of Key West, but the exact location was not disclosed.The drugs were discovered by what the chief is calling a Good Samaritan after they contacted authorities to report the find. The street value of the cocaine is estimated at more than $1 million.Debby was a depression at the time it passed west of the Florida Keys. It later became a tropical storm west of Southwest Florida, followed by strengthening to Category 1 before landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida.
ISLAMORADA, Fla. —
Hurricane Debby washed 70 pounds of cocaine ashore on a Florida beach over the weekend.
According to Chief Patrol Agent Samuel Briggs II, the cocaine was split among 25 packages and washed ashore in the Florida Keys on Islamorada. The island is approximately 80 miles east of Key West, but the exact location was not disclosed.
The drugs were discovered by what the chief is calling a Good Samaritan after they contacted authorities to report the find.
The street value of the cocaine is estimated at more than $1 million.
Debby was a depression at the time it passed west of the Florida Keys. It later became a tropical storm west of Southwest Florida, followed by strengthening to Category 1 before landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida.
A view on May 09, 2024, of trailers located on Aregood Lane that are part of a state base camp in Islamorada to help with an increase in maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
Tallahassee
Reality Check is a Herald series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email our journalists at tips@miamiherald.com.
The southernmost outpost of Ron DeSantis’ battle against illegal immigration stands sentinel off the Overseas Highway, watching for a wave of migrants that hasn’t materialized.
For more than a year, pilots and boat captains have come and gone from a small grid of air-conditioned trailers in the Florida Keys,running missions on the water and in the sky in search of Cubans and Haitian migrants desperate enough to cross the Straits of Florida.
At a cost of about $20 million and counting, the makeshift base camp — erected on Plantation Key early last year after DeSantis declared a state of emergency over illegal immigration — has become one of the more expensive initiatives in the governor’s campaign to keep undocumented immigrants out of the state. DeSantis says it’s also among his most successful.
“I think the message is, the last thing you want to do is to get on some boat and think you are going to come through from any of these islands and come to the state of Florida,” DeSantis told reporters in March.
But a closer look at federal data and the state’s own records raise questions about whether the site — run by a politically connected disaster-management contractor — was established to address a problem that dissipated almost as soon as the generators began to run.
Figures kept by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard show the rush of vessels that overwhelmed the Keys in early 2023 had reduced to a relative trickle just as DeSantis’ administration entered a no-bid agreement with the Deerfield Beach-based contractor Ashbritt to set up trailers, showers, bathrooms and a mess hall for Florida law enforcement officers and soldiers.
In January 2023, federal data shows there were 1,357 encounters with migrants who traveled by sea and succeeded in making landfall in Florida. Those numbers dropped by nearly 80% the following month, and have remained there. So far this year, an average of 126 migrant encounters have been reported each month in the Miami sector, the CBP designation for operations along most of Florida’s coastline.
A makeshift migrant boat floats just offshore Long Key in the Florida Keys Friday morning, Feb. 3, 2023. The U.S. Border Patrol said 29 people from Cuba were aboard. U.S. Border Patrol
DeSantis and state officials have attributed the drop to the state’s boats, planes and personnel deployed to the coast, saying they have helped federal immigration officials intercept migrants more efficiently. In March, the governor said the state’s efforts since January of last year had led to the interdiction of 670 vessels carrying over 13,500 migrants.
“We have an incredible amount of resources that are now on display to be able to prevent [illegal immigration],” DeSantis said in March. “The Coast Guard does by and large a good job but they are under-manned … We are filling those gaps.”
Marnie Villanueva, a spokeswoman for the Division of Emergency Management, which coordinates the state’s immigration-enforcement efforts in the Keys, added that the state’s efforts have allowed the Coast Guard to “patrol deeper waters and interdict a great number of illegal vessels, sooner.”
But officials with the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security dispute the notion that Florida’s outpost has made a material difference.
The governor’s office has been unable or unwilling to show how DeSantis arrived at figures that, it turns out, are bigger than the federal government’s own statistics tracking migrant encounters across a vast swath of ocean. Coast Guard officials said that between January 2023 and the end of last month, Coast Guard crews performed 9,911 repatriations at sea across the entire region — spanning from the Florida Straits all the way to the waters of Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage to Hispaniola, where Florida officials provide no assistance in federal operations.
“Currently, irregular migration flows through the Caribbean remain low,” a Coast Guard official told McClatchy and the Herald/Times last week.
The drop in migrant arrivals also coincided with the launch of a new federal parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans that penalized nationals from those countries crossing illegally into the United States, while offering them a new lawful pathway to entry. Land and sea crossings dropped across the U.S. southern border after the program went into force.
Few examples of impact
DeSantis has in recent years spent millions on initiatives to address what he calls an immigration emergency, including sending the Florida National Guard, state law enforcement officers and the Florida State Guard to the Texas border. Most prominently, the Florida Legislature created a $12 million program to allow DeSantis to fly undocumented immigrants out of Florida, only to change the law to allow the governor leeway outside of state lines after his administration said it had trouble finding migrants in the state and had to search for them in Texas.
In the Florida Keys, DeSantis has sent the State Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission law enforcement personnel on the water, Florida Department of Law Enforcement pilots to run reconnaissance missions in the air, and Florida Highway Patrol troopers with drones to surveil the area.
The DeSantis administration declined to answer repeated questions about staffing at the site, including how many people are currently at the camp and whether the campsite was at capacity each month.
The administration also did not provide details on the number of interceptions personnel have conducted since the camp was set up. By comparison, the governor’s office in 2021 was able to provide detailed numbers on encounters and criminal arrests made by state personnel while at the Texas border.
At least one local official, the Keys’ top law enforcement officer, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, says he is “thrilled” to have the state resources working in the area.
Ramsay, a critic of the state and federal government when migrant landings were becoming a daily occurrence in late 2022 and early 2023, believes the efforts have deterred migrants from arriving at Florida’s shores. When that happens, his deputies are sometimes required to stay with newly arrived migrants until federal officials can take them into custody.
Ramsay said in an interview that the state’s resources have “taken the burden off the sheriff’s office so we can focus on investigating and preventing crime.”
This week, Florida State Guard Soldiers flew 400+ miles in support of @fdlepio as Tactical Flight Officers. During their hands-on training, they learned to identify various maritime vessels in search of illegal immigrants. Together, the FSG, FDLE, and other state agencies… pic.twitter.com/kTzSX6aJKh
The state, however, provided only three examples of its personnel engaging with migrant vessels. Two of those were in the Keys, involving a 60-foot yacht carrying about 30 Haitians and a Cuban chug transporting 16 people who were eventually repatriated. The third was up in Central Florida, 200 miles north of the Keys, involving undocumented immigrants, firearms, night vision gear and drugs.
DeSantis has acknowledged the surge of migrants the state was expecting hasn’t come, though he claims it’s because of the state’s efforts.
“We have not seen a large uptick in vessels coming from Haiti which we are on guard against,” DeSantis said in April, when gangs attacked Haiti’s core institutions and desperate Haitians fled the country. “We have a lot of flotillas out there deterring that from happening and I think it has been successful so far.”
Most of the time, Florida’s pilots and boat captains are assisting federal authorities — something that Florida has been doing for decades. At least one agency involved in the immigration operation, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, says it does not track the number of times officers arrive on a scene to assist other agencies.
An immigration emergency
View of trailers located on a lot on Aregood Lane, on Islamorada, that are part of a state base camp to house police officers sent to the Keys to help with an increase in maritime migration from Cuba and Haiti back in January 2023, on Thursday May 09, 2024. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
DeSantis’ 2023 emergency declaration — still in place today — allowed his administration to quickly and without bids sign a contract to open the site with Ashbritt, a politically connected disaster-management company known for scoring big government jobs following natural disasters, including after Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Documents show the company told the state it could erect a fully operational base for 100 people within 72 hours, and a site was quickly made available in vacant lots in Islamorada owned by a Florida corporation that, in turn, lists the company’s co-founder as its main officer.
Once the deal was reached, the DeSantis administration paid Ashbritt $2.1 million, and a site capable of accommodating 100 state personnel into white, air-conditioned trailers was set up in Plantation Key. Each month, the state has chosen to keep the deal going, though purchase orders show the cost each month has dropped as staffing has decreased.
Shutting the site down is also an option, though the state has so far kept the arrangement going.
“We can scale down as soon as tomorrow,” Ashbritt officials have said in their correspondence with the state. “Please let us know.”
Ashbritt referred questions to the DeSantis administration.
A company with close allies
While Ashbritt is largely known for debris removal following natural disasters, the company has been dipping its toes in the immigration sector.
In 2022, AshBritt was hired to build a makeshift wall along the Arizona-Mexico border with shipping containers and industrial grade fencing. The goal was to stem “the influx of migrants illegally crossing the border.” Ashbritt was later hired to take down the same wall it was hired to build.
Ashbritt also has close ties with the DeSantis administration and the governor.
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, served as the former general counsel for Ashbritt before DeSantis picked him to serve as the state’s director for the Division of Emergency Management in 2018. Holly Raschein, a former Republicanlawmaker who DeSantis appointed to the Monroe County Board of Commissioners in September 2021, is the government relations director for the company. Sara Perkins, who served in DeSantis’ transition team, is the company’s vice president of business affairs.
Executives at Ashbritt also helped fuel DeSantis’ fundraising efforts last year when his presidential campaign was running low on cash and after the campaign announced it was letting go of more than a third of its staff.
Federal campaign filings show that in late September, five executives at the company each gave $3,300 — the maximum amount allowed during a primary — to both the DeSantis’ presidential campaign and an associated political action committee, for a combined $33,000 in donation.
At the time of those donations, Ashbritt was months into its agreement with the state to house state personnel responding to immigration in the Keys.
Months later, the hum of the generator-powered trailers continues and there is nothing to suggest the state intends to shut it down any time soon.
“Florida will continue to dedicate personnel and resources to protect the state from illegal immigration and maintain law and order for the safety of residents,” Villanueva, the Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Miami Herald reporter David Goodhue contributed to this report.
