Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to reporters during a press conference on the airplane runway of “Alligator Alcatraz” in Ochopee, Florida, on July 25.
Photo: Al Diaz/TNS/Getty Images
On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will soon be opening another immigration detention facility in the state, and, like “Alligator Alcatraz” before it, it already has a callous nickname.
The facility, which has been dubbed “Deportation Depot,” is set to open in the coming weeks with the goal of operating as a detention, processing, and deportation center. “The reason of this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage, and then return illegal aliens to their home country. That is the name of the game,” DeSantis said at a press conference during remarks that seemed more focused on a national audience than a state one.
The “Depot” will be located at the Baker Correctional Institution, a temporarily shuttered men’s prison in Sanderson, Florida. According to state officials, the facility will be able to hold more than 1,300 people, and up to as many as 2,000, through the use of “temporary dormitories.”
DeSantis said that the facility will be operational “soon” and the federal government will ultimately reimburse costs for the center. He confirmed that the state previously considered Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, a Florida National Guard base, as a potential site. But DeSantis said the size of the base’s runway likely wouldn’t allow for the use of large planes to transport as many as 200 migrants at a given moment.
“The demand is there and our guys are ready, willing, and able to help our federal partners in this very, very important mission,” he said.
DeSantis’s announcement comes as the state’s first facility, the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, has come under scrutiny for alleged poor conditions. Reports have alleged extensive flooding in the Everglades facility as well as claims of disease outbreaks among detainees. A federal judge recently moved to temporarily halt construction at the facility following a legal challenge from environmental groups.
