Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has announced it is moving forward with plans to open a second immigration detention facility, called “Deportation Depot,” at a state prison, as a federal judge weighs the future of another site for immigrants in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
DeSantis said the new facility will be located at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles west of downtown Jacksonville. The site is expected to house 1,300 immigration detention beds, with potential to expand to 2,000, according to state officials.
After opening the Everglades facility last month, DeSantis justified building the second center by citing a growing need for detention space.
“There is a demand for this,” DeSantis said. “I’m confident that it will be filled.”
He added: “This part of the facility is not being used right now for the state prisoners. It just gives us an ability to go in, stand it up quickly, stand it up cheaply,” he said, calling the site “ready-made.”
Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said it could take two to three weeks to make the facility operational. The prison closed in 2021 due to staffing shortages and will need upgrades such as air conditioning, which is not required in Florida prisons.
“A building that’s been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges,” Guthrie said.
The Florida National Guard and state contractors will staff the site “as needed,” DeSantis said. The Guard had previously been deployed to assist state prisons amid chronic staffing shortages before shifting to immigration enforcement.
Earlier, DeSantis had floated opening a detention facility at Camp Blanding, a Florida National Guard training site about 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville, but said Baker was a better choice due to available space and access to a regional airport.
“Blanding does have air capacity, but probably not a big enough runway to handle large planes,” he said.
DeSantis pledged that detainees at the new facility will receive “the same services” as those at the Everglades center.
However, attorneys representing detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” have described conditions there as dire. In a court filing, they alleged that some detainees with COVID-19 symptoms were not separated from the general population, rainwater was flooding tents, and officers were pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before consulting their attorneys.
“Recent conditions at Alligator Alcatraz have fueled a sense of desperation among detainees,” the filing stated.
The legal challenge seeks to ensure confidential attorney access and to establish which immigration court has jurisdiction over detainees. Lawyers say they have been told that federal immigration courts in Florida do not have jurisdiction over those held at the Everglades site.
