Florida to open second immigration detention facility, 'Deportation Depot'
Florida will open a second immigration detention, processing and deportation facility, dubbed "Deportation Depot" by Gov. Ron DeSantis, in about two weeks.
The new site, at the Baker Correctional Institution near Lake City in the northeast part of the state, will house more than 1,300 people, the governor and other state officials announced at an Aug. 14 news conference. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will use the nearby Lake City Gateway Airport to transport immigrants.
"This is a priority for the people of our state; it's a priority for the people of this country," DeSantis said.
The state had intended to use the Florida National Guard's nearby Camp Blanding as its second immigrant detention facility, but DeSantis said the Baker Correctional Institution would be more economical, costing about $6 million to get it "up and running."
The facility was originally closed because of a staffing shortage within the Florida Department of Corrections, but DeSantis said the Florida National Guard will staff the center. (Baker Correctional Institution is not the same as the Baker County Detention Center, which is already an ICE detention facility.)
DeSantis said using Baker Correctional Institution, or Baker CI, would require "a lot less standing up than we would do at Blanding and far less than we had to do at Alligator Alcatraz."
The state has poured money into the site in the Everglades, formally known as the South Florida Detention Facility, which opened July 1. Less than a month in, state contracts showed the facility cost more than $250 million to set up and it is expected to cost $450 million per year.
DeSantis: Feds will reimburse state for immigration enforcement costs
DeSantis has said the federal government will reimburse the state for its immigration enforcement. Kevin Guthrie, head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said the agency has been working with the feds for the past three months to receive a $605 million grant.
The feds have also recently infused $170 billion for immigration and border-related activities for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in what's known as the Trump administration's "One Big Beautiful Bill," a massive tax and spending law.
State Immigration Enforcement Council Director Larry Keefe criticized the "weaponized judiciary with the leftist lawyers" and the media "distorting facts" for "peripheral flank attacks," saying they're trying to obstruct the state's immigration detention efforts.
Friends of the Everglades, a conservation group, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida are suing the state, alleging the detention facility in Big Cypress National Preserve "poses serious threats to the sensitive Everglades ecosystem, endangered species, clean water and dark night skies."
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams issued a temporary restraining order to halt any further construction of the South Florida Detention Facility and said she will issue a decision before the order expires on Aug. 21.
Florida officials have said that once capacity at the South Florida Detention Facility was reached, they would look at opening another facility at Camp Blanding, a training center for the Florida National Guard in Clay County. Currently, there are 1,000 people detained at the South Florida Detention Facility, and there's capacity to hold 2,000.
DeSantis said the federal government is "ramping up" removal flights from the South Florida facility. While the state operates the facility, the removal of undocumented immigrants is under federal jurisdiction.
But DeSantis also said opening the South Florida Detention Facility has caused an increase of immigrants taking the state's "Voluntary Departure" option. The program is a collaboration between U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the state, where Florida buys commercial flights for migrants as an alternative to detention.
The state has not disclosed whether taxpayer dollars are being used to buy the tickets, how many tickets have been bought so far this year and to which countries these flights were headed to.
Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.
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