Latest news with #CampBlanding
CBS News
a day ago
- Politics
- CBS News
"Deportation Depot" immigration center to open in shuttered North Florida prison, DeSantis says
Amid legal wrangling over a "Alligator Alcatraz," controversial center in South Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said the state plans to use a shuttered prison in North Florida to boost detention of people targeted for deportation. The conversion of Baker Correctional Institution, which state corrections officials mothballed four years ago because of staffing shortages, into a second detention center in Florida will scrap a plan to house immigrant detainees at Camp Blanding west of Jacksonville, DeSantis indicated. The cost to get the Baker County prison up-and-running will total around $6 million, compared to about $75 million to $100 million for a detention center at Camp Blanding, which is used as a training facility for the Florida National Guard, according to state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. Guthrie said the federal government has pledged to give his agency $608 million to house 5,000 undocumented immigrants as part of the state's support of President Donald Trump's mass-deportation efforts. A controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, Alligator Alcatraz was estimated to cost roughly $450 million to construct and operate for a year. The detention complex, located adjacent to an airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, began housing detainees roughly six weeks ago after being quickly built. Baker Correctional Institution — dubbed "Deportation Depot" by state officials — has proximity to an airport in Lake City that can accommodate planes larger than an airstrip at Camp Blanding, DeSantis told reporters during a news conference Thursday at the prison. DeSantis said members of the National Guard and private contractors will staff the Baker facility. "I know we had talked a lot about Camp Blanding, and I think it was a viable option, but this is just better, ready-made. 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, and then, ultimately, have something that can be 1,300 (person capacity). It could be more than that," DeSantis said, adding that "we won't hesitate" to add more beds if needed. Hector Diaz, managing partner of the Miami-based Your Immigration Attorney firm, said the converted prison "seems to be overkill," as most of the people being detained "are not criminals and are being held for minor infractions and misdemeanors." "Putting these people in a former state prison correctional center is out of line," Diaz said in an email. DeSantis and other state officials "are making the immigration system more chaotic and are doing more harm than achieving their goal," Diaz said. DeSantis' announcement about the prison came amid at least a temporary halt on additional construction at the Everglades site and as two federal-court fights continue. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 temporarily blocked state officials from additional construction or infrastructure, paving or installation of new lighting at the remote facility. Williams' ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity alleging state and federal officials failed to comply with a federal law that required an environmental impact study before construction began on the detention center, which is surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida also joined the plaintiffs in the case. Williams issued a 14-day temporary injunction blocking expansion at the facility and this week heard arguments on the plaintiffs' request for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction seeking the impact study. Williams said she plans to rule on the request before the temporary injunction expires on Aug. 21. State officials initially said the Everglades center would house up to 3,000 detainees and could be expanded to add 1,000 people. Guthrie said Thursday the center has a capacity for 2,000 detainees and holds 1,000. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz on Thursday held a conference with attorneys in a separate lawsuit filed by immigration lawyers alleging that detainees at the South Florida detention center have inadequate access to legal assistance and immigration courts. The lawyers also allege that detainees are unable to meet privately with their attorneys. In court documents, state officials said they have made strides in establishing a process for detainees to confer with their lawyers by video conference or in person and attributed the delay to the speed with which the Everglades complex was set up. The immigration attorneys, however, maintain that the process remains inadequate, difficult to navigate and lacks privacy as required by law. As an example, a declaration filed Wednesday said that attorney Vilerka Solange Bilbao has struggled to obtain signed forms that would allow her to meet with clients. The lawyer eventually held a video conference with client Yuniel Michell Figueredo Corrales, a detainee who has been incarcerated at the Everglades facility since July 11. But the declaration said the online meeting was "clearly not confidential" because "Mr. Figueredo Corrales sat in a sort of tent with soft-sided, makeshift fabric walls and no roof" with "guards standing close by." Lawyers for state and federal officials are asking Ruiz to transfer the case, which was filed in the federal Southern District of Florida to the Middle District of Florida, which includes Collier County. The majority of the detention center is located in Collier County, but the airstrip is in Miami-Dade County, which is in the Southern District. Ruiz on Thursday appeared to be grappling with the court venue issue, which he will consider during a hearing Monday before addressing the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction. "There is a strong possibility that some counts that have been alleged cannot be brought in this district and should have been brought in the Middle District of Florida. There is also a possibility that some counts do indeed belong in the Southern District of Florida. These are some of the issues that I'm struggling with to determine whether or not I think we've met the threshold for injunctive relief," Ruiz said. Ruiz raised the possibility that the case could be split between the two judicial districts. "Perhaps it's a false hope from the court that everybody would say to themselves, judicial economy serves that a judge who spent this much time going through this record should hold on to this case," Ruiz said. "As I've stated, there may be problems with keeping this whole case here, and they're starting to really crystallize for me."
CBS News
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
"Detention Depot" immigration center to open in shuttered North Florida prison, DeSantis says
Amid legal wrangling over a "Alligator Alcatraz," controversial center in South Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said the state plans to use a shuttered prison in North Florida to boost detention of people targeted for deportation. The conversion of Baker Correctional Institution, which state corrections officials mothballed four years ago because of staffing shortages, into a second detention center in Florida will scrap a plan to house immigrant detainees at Camp Blanding west of Jacksonville, DeSantis indicated. The cost to get the Baker County prison up-and-running will total around $6 million, compared to about $75 million to $100 million for a detention center at Camp Blanding, which is used as a training facility for the Florida National Guard, according to state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. Guthrie said the federal government has pledged to give his agency $608 million to house 5,000 undocumented immigrants as part of the state's support of President Donald Trump's mass-deportation efforts. A controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, Alligator Alcatraz was estimated to cost roughly $450 million to construct and operate for a year. The detention complex, located adjacent to an airstrip known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, began housing detainees roughly six weeks ago after being quickly built. Baker Correctional Institution — dubbed "Deportation Depot" by state officials — has proximity to an airport in Lake City that can accommodate planes larger than an airstrip at Camp Blanding, DeSantis told reporters during a news conference Thursday at the prison. DeSantis said members of the National Guard and private contractors will staff the Baker facility. "I know we had talked a lot about Camp Blanding, and I think it was a viable option, but this is just better, ready-made. 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, and then, ultimately, have something that can be 1,300 (person capacity). It could be more than that," DeSantis said, adding that "we won't hesitate" to add more beds if needed. Hector Diaz, managing partner of the Miami-based Your Immigration Attorney firm, said the converted prison "seems to be overkill," as most of the people being detained "are not criminals and are being held for minor infractions and misdemeanors." "Putting these people in a former state prison correctional center is out of line," Diaz said in an email. DeSantis and other state officials "are making the immigration system more chaotic and are doing more harm than achieving their goal," Diaz said. DeSantis' announcement about the prison came amid at least a temporary halt on additional construction at the Everglades site and as two federal-court fights continue. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 temporarily blocked state officials from additional construction or infrastructure, paving or installation of new lighting at the remote facility. Williams' ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity alleging state and federal officials failed to comply with a federal law that required an environmental impact study before construction began on the detention center, which is surrounded by the Big Cypress National Preserve. The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida also joined the plaintiffs in the case. Williams issued a 14-day temporary injunction blocking expansion at the facility and this week heard arguments on the plaintiffs' request for a longer-lasting preliminary injunction seeking the impact study. Williams said she plans to rule on the request before the temporary injunction expires on Aug. 21. State officials initially said the Everglades center would house up to 3,000 detainees and could be expanded to add 1,000 people. Guthrie said Thursday the center has a capacity for 2,000 detainees and holds 1,000. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz on Thursday held a conference with attorneys in a separate lawsuit filed by immigration lawyers alleging that detainees at the South Florida detention center have inadequate access to legal assistance and immigration courts. The lawyers also allege that detainees are unable to meet privately with their attorneys. In court documents, state officials said they have made strides in establishing a process for detainees to confer with their lawyers by video conference or in person and attributed the delay to the speed with which the Everglades complex was set up. The immigration attorneys, however, maintain that the process remains inadequate, difficult to navigate and lacks privacy as required by law. As an example, a declaration filed Wednesday said that attorney Vilerka Solange Bilbao has struggled to obtain signed forms that would allow her to meet with clients. The lawyer eventually held a video conference with client Yuniel Michell Figueredo Corrales, a detainee who has been incarcerated at the Everglades facility since July 11. But the declaration said the online meeting was "clearly not confidential" because "Mr. Figueredo Corrales sat in a sort of tent with soft-sided, makeshift fabric walls and no roof" with "guards standing close by." Lawyers for state and federal officials are asking Ruiz to transfer the case, which was filed in the federal Southern District of Florida to the Middle District of Florida, which includes Collier County. The majority of the detention center is located in Collier County, but the airstrip is in Miami-Dade County, which is in the Southern District. Ruiz on Thursday appeared to be grappling with the court venue issue, which he will consider during a hearing Monday before addressing the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction. "There is a strong possibility that some counts that have been alleged cannot be brought in this district and should have been brought in the Middle District of Florida. There is also a possibility that some counts do indeed belong in the Southern District of Florida. These are some of the issues that I'm struggling with to determine whether or not I think we've met the threshold for injunctive relief," Ruiz said. Ruiz raised the possibility that the case could be split between the two judicial districts. "Perhaps it's a false hope from the court that everybody would say to themselves, judicial economy serves that a judge who spent this much time going through this record should hold on to this case," Ruiz said. "As I've stated, there may be problems with keeping this whole case here, and they're starting to really crystallize for me."
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Citing 'capacity,' DeSantis says Camp Blanding can be state's next 'Alligator Alcatraz'
The Florida National Guard's training facility at Camp Blanding is in line to become a temporary detention facility for immigrants detained in nationwide enforcement sweeps, Gov. Ron DeSantis said June 25 during a visit to Tampa. 'We have some capacity there,' DeSantis said of the sprawling Guard property southwest of Jacksonville in Clay County countryside near Starke. DeSantis raised the idea of using Camp Blanding while discussing plans for a Southwest Florida facility nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz to be built at a disused airfield in the Everglades, saying the federal Department of Homeland Security would benefit by having somewhere besides local jails to hold people for immigration processing. More: Immigration raid in Florida capital leaves families searching for loved ones – and answers 'We can't have every illegal housed in our jails because we have non-illegals who need to be housed there,' the governor said. So, 'Alligator Alcatraz it is, and so you will see that be done,' DeSantis said. '… It will be a force multiplier. It will help DHS. It will help our state and local law enforcement with relieving some burden on resources. We'll probably also do something similar up in Camp Blanding.' The governor offered no details but said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the state's Division of Emergency Management, was 'working on that. So, we'll have a formal announcement on both of those [locations] very, very quickly.' While circumstances are different, this wouldn't be the first time Camp Blanding has been used to house non-Americans. During World War II, German civilians who were detained in Latin America as enemy aliens were moved to the camp in the summer of 1942 and the property later became a camp for German prisoners of war, the Florida Historical Quarterly recounted in 1979. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Camp Blanding could be state's next 'Alligator Alcaraz,' DeSantis says
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is work on center to detain 2,000 immigrants at Camp Blanding starting 'right after' July 4?
A planned immigrant detention center at Camp Blanding will hold 2,000 people awaiting deportation, Gov. Ron DeSantis said during President Donald Trump's July 1 appearance at the new South Florida center nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz. Construction at the Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard's training center in Clay County southwest of Jacksonville, could start in days, a top state administrator said. 'The response [request] for proposals is out,' said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, referencing a government process for seeking bids from contractors. '... It closes Wednesday at 5 o'clock. Then we will do notice to proceed. So, I would say right after our wonderful Independence Day, we will be starting construction there at that facility.' DeSantis touted the detainee centers at both ends of his state as evidence that Florida is committed to achieving Trump's vision of mass deportation. More: Tribal nations band together to denounce 'Alligator Alcatraz' on Florida ancestral homelands 'We're all in on this because we understand how important it is to our citizens,' the governor said. Noting the South Florida camp's siting on a dormant airfield surrounded by the Everglades, DeSantis remarked elsewhere that 'our goal here is to process them and be able to effectuate their return to their home country.' At Camp Blanding, 'we have another big runway there too,' Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier volunteered during a roundtable talk, apparently referring to Camp Blanding Army Airfield. Asked later about a suggestion of using military reservists as immigration judges to avoid long waits for final decisions on deportations, Trump said DeSantis 'has my approval.' The South Florida center, built to hold 3,000 immigrants, was described during Trump's visit as being built in eight days with redundant power and aluminum-framed buildings made to handle 110-mph hurricane winds. Wastewater is trucked out for offsite disposal, DeSantis said. Guthrie described standing up the camp as a dress rehearsal for the kind of urgent work his agency does after natural disasters like hurricanes. Guthrie didn't specify a timeframe for completing the Camp Blanding facility. However, his descriptions of facilities created for the South Florida camp, whose capacity is 50% more than what's planned in Clay County, could be instructive for visualizing the facilities likely in Northeast Florida. 'We put staff village here onsite with a capacity of 1,000,' Guthrie said, which would include more than 400 security staff, about 200 of those military. By comparison, a webpage about Camp Blanding for the VA Loan Network, which serves veterans and military customers, describes the base as having about 1,000 active-duty personnel, about 500 civilian employees and contractors and another 1,000 dependents and family members, for a total community of about 2,500 people. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Camp Blanding detention center will hold 2,000 immigrants, Desantis says
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Will Camp Blanding be the 'Alligator Alcatraz' of Northeast Florida? Here's what we know.
After greeting President Donald Trump at a newly unveiled immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz," Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans for a second facility at Camp Blanding that will hold up to 2,000 detainees. Construction on the site could begin as early as next week, following the 4th of July weekend. To support his claim, DeSantis said the Camp Blanding facility will bolster both state and federal efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, calling it a key component in Florida's broader immigration enforcement strategy. Criticism of 'Alligator Alcatraz": Florida lawmaker calls immigrant detention centers 'concentration camps' on CNN Camp Blanding, located southwest of Jacksonville, serves as the primary training site for the Florida National Guard. Additionally, the site includes weapons ranges, educational facilities, simulation platforms, and maintenance support, serving not only the state's National Guard but also a wide range of federal, state, and local agencies across the Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) spectrum. Originally, the idea of using the site as a second immigration detention center was proposed during a news conference on June 25th by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He argued that a dedicated facility is necessary, saying, 'We can't have every illegal housed in our jails because we actually have non-illegals who need to be housed there.' However, aside from being a training center, the facility also has an operating museum for civilians. However, the question remains whether turning Camp Blanding into an immigration detention center will disrupt its current daily operations. Yes, Camp Blanding played a big role during World War II as one of the U.S. Army's major training centers. It started in 1939 as a training area for the Florida National Guard, but as the U.S. prepared for war, it quickly expanded into a federal military base. During the war, Camp Blanding became home to two full infantry divisions and many smaller units. In 1944 and 1945, thousands of soldiers trained here before heading overseas to join combat. The camp also included a large hospital with 2,800 beds, a German POW camp, and later, a Separation Center to help soldiers return to civilian life after the war. Due to its history, the camp was turned into a museum for civilians to indulge in history. After the war ended, Camp Blanding returned to state control. Today, it's still an important training site for the National Guard, Reserves, and even some active-duty military units. Whether you're a history buff or just passing through, Camp Blanding offers a fascinating glimpse into America's wartime past. More Camp Blanding history: Black Panther Division back at Camp Blanding, 75 years later The Camp Blanding Museum features uniforms, weapons, vehicles, and aircraft dating back to the 1940s. According to its website, plans are underway to expand exhibits to include the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and the Global War on Terror. Visitors can also browse a gift shop offering history books, patches, pins, and military memorabilia. Outside, the Memorial Park displays large artifacts and monuments honoring those who trained or served at Camp Blanding throughout the decades. As of now, the museum is open to civilians daily from noon to 4 p.m. Located at 5629 SR 16 West, Building 3040, in Starke. Admissions are currently free, with tours available before or after normal hours by appointment, according to the website. As of now, DeSantis has said it will be fully funded by the Federal government, and the construction of Alligator Alcatraz can give a general estimate of the costs that building a facility in Northeast Florida could look like. For what we know now, the remote facility in South Florida, which is composed of large tents and other planned facilities, will cost the state around $450 million a year to run. However, to reduce some of the costs, Florida can request some reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. DeSantis has stated that the project will be fully funded by the federal government. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told USA TODAY that a significant portion of the center and its facilities will be financed through FEMA's Shelter and Services Program, and while the state has confirmed that FEMA will reimburse costs for the Everglades facility, it has not yet addressed whether additional sites will also qualify for reimbursement. To place things into perspective, the 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility, designed to hold up to 5,000 detainees, was created in roughly one week under the direction of state Attorney General James Uthmeier. In comparison, Camp Blanding is expected to hold up to 2,000 detainees. During a tour of the facility on July 1, Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told NBC News that the site can now hold 500 detainees and will be expanded to fit as many as 3,000. As of now, there were rows of bunk beds inside fenced-in areas under a white tent structure with air conditioning. Being present in the U.S. without proper authorization is generally a civil violation, not a criminal one. This means it's handled through immigration proceedings, like deportation, rather than criminal court. Criminal Offenses Include: Illegal Entry: Entering the U.S. without authorization, like crossing the border illegally, is a misdemeanor for the first offense, potentially punishable by fine or imprisonment. Illegal Reentry: Reentering the U.S. after being deported or removed is a felony, with potential penalties of fines and imprisonment. Other Immigration-Related Crimes: Other crimes like smuggling aliens, harboring aliens, or marriage fraud for immigration purposes can also be prosecuted under criminal law. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Camp Blanding: What to know about Florida's second 'Alligator Alcatraz'
