By SOPHIA TAREEN

Top Trump administration officials boast that a new state partnership to expand immigrant detention in Indiana will be the next so-called “ Alligator Alcatraz.”

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However, the agreement is already prompting backlash in the Midwest state, starting with its splashy “Speedway Slammer” moniker.

Here’s a closer look at the agreement, the pushback and Indiana’s role in the Trump agenda to aggressively detain and deport people in the country illegally.

More beds, not new construction

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem trumpeted the deal late Tuesday, saying Indiana would add 1,000 detention beds for immigrants facing deportation under a revived federal program.

On social media, DHS also posted an altered image of a race car emblazoned with “ICE,” short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The IndyCar-style vehicle is shown rolling past a barbed-wire prison wall.

“If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Indiana’s Speedway Slammer,” Noem said, likening it to the controversial facility built in the Florida Everglades. She added the new partnership will “help remove the worst of the worst out of our country.”

However, the Indiana deal doesn’t involve construction.

Federal funds will be used for space at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, roughly 75 miles north of Indianapolis. The prison’s total capacity is 3,100 beds, of which 1,200 are not filled, according to Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Annie Goeller.

Officials did not say when the detentions would start. “Details about the partnership and how IDOC can best support those efforts are being determined,” Geoller said.

The deal is part of the decades-old 287(g) program, which Trump has revived and expanded. It delegates immigration enforcement powers to state and local law enforcement agencies. Immigrants, attorneys and advocates have raised a number of concerns about the program, including a lack of oversight.

The Florida detention facility has prompted lawsuits and complaints about poor conditions and violations of detainees’ rights. Authorities have disputed the claims.

Republican Gov. Mike Braun first announced the federal partnership on Friday.

“Indiana is not a safe haven for illegal immigration,” he said. “Indiana will fully partner with federal immigration authorities as they enforce the most fundamental laws of our country.”

Pushback to a borrowed name

The outlandish name quickly drew backlash, notably from the town of Speedway, an Indianapolis suburb which is home to the iconic racetrack that hosts the Indianapolis 500.

“This designation was developed and released independently by the federal agency, without the Town’s involvement or prior notice regarding the use of the name ‘Speedway,’ ” officials with the Indiana town of roughly 14,000 said in a statement. “Our primary focus remains the well-being of our residents, businesses, and visitors.”

IndyCar officials were also caught off guard.

“We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of announcement,” IndyCar said, asking that its intellectual property “not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”

The altered image used by DHS featured an IndyCar with the No. 5, the same number as the only Mexican driver in the series.

“I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means,” IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward said Wednesday. “I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.”

President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that he didn’t name the facility.

“But I’ll say this, the work of ICE, the men and women of ICE, are trying to do their job with integrity and honor,” he told reporters at the White House. “I don’t want these names to detract from that.”

Indiana embraces immigration enforcement

Leaders in the Trump administration have already singled out Indiana as key to their immigration agenda.

Braun, a first-term governor and former U.S. senator, has been a strong Trump supporter. In January, Braun signed an executive order directing law enforcement agencies to “fully cooperate” on immigration enforcement.

The nation’s newest immigration court opened in Indianapolis earlier this year as a way to address the backlog and divert cases from the busy courthouse in Chicago.

Federal and state leaders are also working on plans to use a central Indiana military base, Camp Atterbury, to temporarily house detainees.

“Indiana is taking a comprehensive and collaborative approach to combating illegal immigration and will continue to lead the way among states,” Braun said in a statement Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, likely raising the cost of electronics, autos, household appliances and other goods deemed essential for the digital age.

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“We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. “But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the U.S. would be spared the import tax. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to an overall uptick in inflation.

Inquiries sent to chip makers Nvidia and Intel were not immediately answered.

Demand for computer chips has been climbing worldwide, with sales increasing 19.6% in the year-ended in June, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

Trump’s tariff threats mark a significant break from existing plans to revive computer chip production in the United States. He is choosing an approach that favors the proverbial stick over carrots in order to incentivize more production. Essentially, the president is betting that higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for mobile phones, TVs and refrigerators.

By contrast, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act signed into law in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden provided more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research and train workers for the industry. The mix of funding support, tax credits and other financial incentives were meant to draw in private investment, a strategy that Trump has vocally opposed.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward and series officials were shocked by a social media post from the Department of Homeland Security that touts plans for an immigration detention center in Indiana dubbed “Speedway Slammer,” and includes a car with the same number as the only Mexican driver in the series.

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“It caught a lot of people off guard. Definitely caught me off guard,” O’Ward said Wednesday. “I was just a little bit shocked at the coincidences of that and, you know, of what it means. … I don’t think it made a lot of people proud, to say the least.”

The post Tuesday included an image of a IndyCar-style vehicle with the No. 5 that had “ICE” imposed on it multiple times similar to the display of a sponsor. It appeared to be a computer-created image, with the car on a track and a prison-like building in the background.

Indiana is home to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and is where the IndyCar Series is based.

“We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of yesterday’s announcement,” IndyCar said in a statement Wednesday. “Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”

O’Ward said he didn’t see the post until a friend texted him about it.

“I haven’t really read into it too much because I don’t think I want to,” he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a separate post used “SpeedwaySlammer” when announcing the new partnership with the state of Indiana to expand detention space by 1,000 beds.

The 26-year-old O’Ward, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, is second in points, though Alex Palou can clinch the IndyCar season title as early as this weekend in Portland. O’Ward was in Texas to promote next year’s inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.

That race on March 15 will be on a 2.7-mile layout that goes around the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Texas Rangers. O’Ward threw a ceremonial first pitch before the Rangers’ game against the New York Yankees.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

NEW YORK (AP) — WhatsApp has taken down 6.8 million accounts that were “linked to criminal scam centers” targeting people online around that world, its parent company Meta said this week.

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The account deletions, which Meta said took place over the first six months of the year, arrive as part of wider company efforts to crack down on scams. In a Tuesday announcement, Meta said it was also rolling new tools on WhatsApp to help people spot scams — including a new safety overview that the platform will show when someone who is not in a user’s contacts adds them to a group, as well as ongoing test alerts to pause before responding.

Scams are becoming all too common and increasingly sophisticated in today’s digital world — with too-good-to-be-true offers and unsolicited messages attempting to steal consumers’ information or money filling our phones, social media and other corners of the internet each day. Meta noted that “some of the most prolific” sources of scams are criminal scam centers, which often span from forced labor operated by organized crime — and warned that such efforts often target people on many platforms at once, in attempts to evade detection.

That means that a scam campaign may start with messages over text or a dating app, for example, and then move to social media and payment platforms, the California-based company said.

Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, pointed to recent scam efforts that it said attempted to use its own apps — as well as TikTok, Telegram and AI-generated messages made using ChatGPT — to offer payments for fake likes, enlist people into a pyramid scheme and/or lure others into cryptocurrency investments. Meta linked these scams to a criminal scam center in Cambodia — and said it disrupted the campaign in partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.