Florida governor announces second immigration detention center
Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that the state will use a shuttered state prison in North Florida to open a second immigration detention center.
The state plans to spend $6 million to renovate Baker Correctional Institution, which was closed due to staffing issues in the state prison system. It will hold more than 1,300 people awaiting deportation. He nicknamed it "Deportation Depot."
State officials have said that the Florida National Guard will staff the new facility, not corrections officers.
"We have reached the point where we need additional capacity," DeSantis said at a press conference outside the shuttered prison. "The reason for this is not just to house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage and then return illegal aliens to their home country."
"Alligator Alcatraz" was created this summer with DeSantis' emergency powers when he commandeered an air strip that was owned by Miami-Dade County and created the outdoor detention facility.
Environmental groups, as well as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, want the facility shut down, saying they should have been consulted about ecological effects on the area, which includes the federally protected Big Cypress National Preserve. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, just finished hearings on the group's lawsuit.
On Aug. 7, Williams ordered that construction work be halted at the site for the next two weeks.
DeSantis said there are about 1,000 people housed in the Everglades facility. He did lash out at Williams, who held state Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt for not following an order halting enforcement of a Florida immigration law.
"It's obvious this judge is hostile," DeSantis told reporters. "It's a political thing."
Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management responsible for helping set up the center, said the state will bring in air-conditioning units to pump in chilled air. He said state law does not require air-conditioning in its prisons, but federal standards call for detainees to be in a climate-controlled location.
"A building that's been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges," Guthrie acknowledged.
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