Just weeks after opening Alligator Alcatraz, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled plans for a second migrant detention center to operate in the state.
Dubbed “Deportation Depot,” the new migrant detention facility will be unrolled at the Baker Correctional Institution, a Florida prison roughly 40 miles west of Jacksonville and expected to hold over 1,000 detention beds, according to an announcement on Thursday. The plan follows the opening of Alligator Alcatraz, a state-run migrant detention center located deep inside the Florida Everglades.
“We’re taking yet another step in supporting the important mission that President Trump was elected to implement, securing the border, enforcing immigration laws and removing illegal aliens who are in our society now and sending them back to their home country,” DeSantis said during a press conference.
“We have done more on this than any other state by a country mile,” the governor continued, noting how Florida has laws on the books that mandate local law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and highlighting what his state government has done to prevent illegal immigration.
Deportation Depot is anticipated to hold as many as 1,300 detention beds, but this number could be expanded, according to DeSantis. The governor added that the federal government will reimburse Florida for costs incurred.
Like Alligator Alcatraz, the new project is meant to help the Trump administration’s detention and deportation efforts by providing more jail resources for the expanding number of illegal migrants apprehended by ICE agents.
“That is the name of the game,” DeSantis said.
“This is something that the Division of Emergency Management worked very quickly on,” he continued. “This will be operational soon. It’s not going to take forever, but we’re also not rushing to do it right this day.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier first proposed the idea of Alligator Alcatraz in June, suggesting that the location would be ideal because migrant detainees would have virtually nowhere to escape. The project turned a largely abandoned airfield into a massive detention facility, helping the Trump administration as it continues with its goal of unprecedented immigration enforcement. Deportation flights from Alligator Alcatraz are already underway.
A massive region of flooded grassland in southern Florida, the Everglades is roughly 1.5 million acres and estimated to hold more than 200,000 alligators — making escape by foot a dangerous decision. The project, which was expected to cost around $450 million a year and feature 5,000 beds to house illegal migrants and other foreign nationals under federal immigration detention, has since been challenged in court by environmentalists and other opponents.
The Trump administration has also partnered with Indiana officials for the opening of the “Speedway Slammer.” That project is expected to expand detention space by 1,000 beds at the Miami Correctional Center in Bunker Hill, Indiana.
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