Florida opening Deportation Depot at former prison to operate alongside Alligator Alcatraz

Independent

3 days ago

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is turning a shuttered state prison into another immigration detention center that can hold up to 1,300 people.
While a federal judge considers whether to shut down another detention facility that Donald Trump's administration and Florida officials are calling Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades, DeSantis on Thursday announced the state is moving forward with 'Deportation Depot.'
'This will be operational soon, it is not going to take forever, but we are also not rushing to do this right this day,' DeSantis said Thursday.
The prison — located within a rural stretch of the state between Tallahassee and Jacksonville — will operate inside Baker Correctional Institution, joining a new wave of state-run detention centers working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to boost the president's mass deportation agenda.
'The reason for 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.
The prison first opened in 1978 with a capacity for 1,165 inmates in a mix of security levels, including for inmates who are considered high security risks. It closed in 2021 follow staffing shortages in the state's correctional facilities.
The governor's announcement follows a federal court order to stop any new construction at Alligator Alcatraz following a lawsuit from environmental groups warning that the facility endangers surrounding wetlands and wildlife.
That 3,000-bed detention center opened in south Florida last month within the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, roughly 43 miles from Miami in the middle of the Everglades.
A federal lawsuit accuses the facility of blocking detainees from legal counsel and forcing people into 'overcrowded, unsanitary, and harsh conditions' with inadequate food, flood-prone cells, and 'excessive use of force' from guards that sent at least one man to a hospital.
It's also unclear who is actually running the facility and who wants to take responsibility for it. Government lawyers could not immediately answer in court whether the federal government or Florida is responsible.
In court filings, immigration officials claimed that the facility is operating through the federal 287(g) program, which allows local and state law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration law. ICE has inked nearly 800 such agreements covering 40 states.
That makeshift facility is expected to cost roughly $450 million within its first year, at roughly $245 per inmate bed per night, according to Homeland Security. ICE spent roughly $187 per adult detainee per day in 2023.
The incoming wave of state-run detention centers is expected to tap into $45 billion in new funding for ICE as part of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' That bill also allocates $30 billion for an aggressive recruitment campaign to hire another 10,000 ICE agents.
boon to for-profit contractors and cash-strapped states looking to tap into billions of taxpayer dollars.
This is a developing story