GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – The second immigrant detention facility since Alligator Alcatraz” will be at Baker Correctional Institute, a vacant prison in a remote part of Baker County.
“We have identified this location. It will be able to hold more than 1300 illegal alien detainees. You will have the same services that you have at Alligator Alcatraz. Costs will be reimbursed by our federal partners,” Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference.
Protesters say the deportation facilities are inhumane and not a solution to anything.
“Their plan continues to violate fundamental human rights and further entrenches the state’s machinery of mass detention. We have said from the beginning, ‘Not now, not here, not ever.’ The processes and conditions of these facilities of these internment camps are not tolerable in any civilized society,” Jyoti Parmar, Executive Director of North Central Florida Indivisible, shared.
DeSantis says he is naming the facility Deportation Depot.
“We are calling this the Deportation Depot. It is going to be named, it is going to be located here at Baker Correctional Institute. And again, the reason of this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage, and then return illegal aliens to their home country.”
Some believe the name of the facility just shows how inhumane it really is.
“You know that language that they use, that DeSantis uses, it reflects his attitude. Human beings are not cargo, it’s not a depot, that’s so telling. But these internment camps are cruel and inhumane and are not good policy and does not solve whatever problem they claim they have,” Parmar expressed.
Governor Ron DeSantis explained how these facilities can allow the state highway patrol officers to get illegal immigrants off the roads.
“You could have an illegal alien driving drunk on the highway, you know, we have Rep. Michael here, her son was killed by a previously deported illegal alien that rammed into her son on the roadways, so this has massive consequences for our citizens.”
However, those in protest feel sending someone directly to one of these detention centers is not a reasonable response to an incident like that.
“The example that DeSantis gave today, for example, was that someone was drunk and got into an accident and, as part of the accident, killed someone, and they are like, ‘well, these illegals should be deported,’ it’s terrible. And I will say my father, who was an immigrant, was killed by a drunk driver who is American. Should he have been deported?”
DeSantis said more than 1300 detainees will be held at the facility, which he expects to be operational soon. He did not mention the possibility of a detention center at Camp Blanding.
RELATED: Plans for immigration detention center at Camp Blanding put on hold
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