‘Deportation Depot’: New Florida immigrant detention site now taking detainees, officials say

Florida’s new immigrant detention facility, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” is now housing detainees, state officials said Friday.

The facility at the state’s Baker Correctional Institution is housing 117 detainees with the capacity to hold 1,500 people, according to the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The temporarily closed state prison is located about 45 miles west of Jacksonville near the Osceola National Forest.

This marks the second immigrant detention facility the state has opened since the erection of a controversial facility in the everglades, known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” A number of other states have announced similar sites with names like “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana.

“Deportation Depot” was announced in August just before a federal judge placed a preliminary injunction on “Alligator Alcatraz” that would have effectively shut that site down.

Since then, a federal appeals court has stayed the lower court’s order to force the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz.” The state has said it will continue transporting detainees out of there.

The state has announced it will explore adding a third detention site in Florida’s panhandle DeSantis has called “Panhandle Pokey.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.