TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot” at a state prison in north Florida, as a federal judge decides the fate of the state’s holding center for immigrants at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
DeSantis announced Thursday that the new facility is to be housed at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles (69 kilometers) west of downtown Jacksonville. It is expected to hold 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said.
After opening the Everglades facility last month, DeSantis justified building the second detention center by saying President Donald Trump’s administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants.
“There is a demand for this,” DeSantis said. “I’m confident that it will be filled.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has trumpeted Republican governors’ efforts to expand their immigration detention capacity, calling Florida’s partnership a model for other state-run holding facilities.
DeSantis touted the relative ease and economy of setting up the north facility at a pre-existing prison, estimating the build-out cost to be $6 million. That’s compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has committed to construct the vast network of tents and trailers at the south facility in the rugged and remote Florida swamp.
“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,” DeSantis said of the state prison, calling the site “ready-made.”
It could take two to three weeks to get the facility operational, according to Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency in charge of building the immigration facilities.
The state had announced plans to “temporarily” close the prison in 2021, due to persistent staffing shortages.
“A building that’s been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges,” Guthrie said when estimating the construction timeline.
Among the renovations needed: air conditioning, which is not required under Florida’s standards for its prisons, despite the state’s sweltering climate.
Staffing at the site will be handled by the Florida National Guard and state contractors “as needed,” DeSantis said. The state’s National Guard had been called on to help run the state’s prisons for more than two years due to chronic staff shortages, before being mobilized to support the state’s immigration enforcement efforts.
DeSantis had previously floated plans to open a second detention facility at a nearby Florida National Guard training facility known as Camp Blanding, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jacksonville. The longstanding military installation was a major U.S. Army training facility during World War II and serves as a “continuity of government” site for Florida’s executive branch, according to the facility’s website.
But announcing the plans Thursday, DeSantis said the Baker facility was a better fit because of its available capacity and proximity to a regional airport.
“Blanding does have air capacity, but probably not a big enough runway to handle large planes,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis pledged that detainees at the new facility will have “the same services” that are available at the state’s first detention center.
Attorneys for detainees at the Everglades facility have called the conditions there deplorable, writing in a court filing that some detainees are showing symptoms of COVID-19 without being separated from the general population. Rainwater floods their tents and officers go cell-to-cell pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before they’re allowed to consult their attorneys.
“Recent conditions at Alligator Alcatraz have fueled a sense of desperation among detainees,” the attorneys said in the court filing.
Conditions at the hastily built detention center were outlined in a filing made Wednesday ahead of a hearing Monday over the legal rights of the detainees. Civil rights attorneys want U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to their lawyers, which the lawyers say they haven’t had.
The state of Florida disputed that detainees’ attorneys have been unable to meet with their clients. Since July 15, when videoconferencing started at the facility, the state has granted every request for a detainee to meet with an attorney, and in-person meetings started July 28, state officials said. The first detainees arrived at the beginning of July.
Attorneys for detainees also wanted the judge to identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detention center so that petitions can be filed for the detainees’ bond or release. The civil rights attorneys say they’ve been told regularly that federal immigration courts in Florida don’t have jurisdiction over the detainees held in the Everglades.
___ Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
