{"id":145432,"date":"2025-08-14T15:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/145432\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T15:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:43:09","slug":"florida-announces-plans-for-second-immigration-detention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/145432\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida announces plans for second immigration detention center"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention facility dubbed \u201cDeportation Depot\u201d at a state prison in north Florida, as a federal judge decides the fate<\/a> of the state\u2019s holding center for immigrants at an isolated airstrip in the Florida Everglades dubbed \u201cAlligator Alcatraz.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

DeSantis announced Thursday that the new facility is to be housed at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles (69 kilometers) west of downtown Jacksonville. It is expected to hold 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said. <\/p>\n

After opening the Everglades facility last month, DeSantis justified building the second detention center by saying President Donald Trump\u2019s administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a demand for this,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cI\u2019m confident that it will be filled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has trumpeted Republican governors\u2019 efforts<\/a> to expand immigration detention capacity, calling Florida\u2019s partnership a model<\/a> for other state-run holding facilities.<\/p>\n

DeSantis touted the relative ease and economy of setting up the north facility at a pre-existing prison, estimating the build-out cost to be $6 million. That\u2019s compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> the state has committed to construct the vast network of tents and trailers<\/a> at the south facility in the rugged and remote Florida swamp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d DeSantis said of the state prison, calling the site \u201cready-made.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could take two to three weeks to get the facility operational, according to Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the agency in charge of building the immigration facilities. <\/p>\n

The state had announced plans to \u201ctemporarily\u201d close the prison in 2021, due to persistent staffing shortages<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cA building that\u2019s been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges,\u201d Guthrie said when estimating the construction timeline.<\/p>\n

Among the renovations needed: air conditioning, which is not required under Florida\u2019s standards for its prisons, despite the state\u2019s sweltering climate.<\/p>\n

Staffing at the site will be handled by the National Guard and state contractors \u201cas needed,\u201d DeSantis said. The state\u2019s National Guard had been called on to help run the state\u2019s prisons for more than two years due to chronic staff shortages, before being mobilized to support the state\u2019s immigration enforcement efforts. <\/p>\n

DeSantis pledged that detainees at the new facility will have \u201cthe same services\u201d that are available at the state\u2019s first detention center. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for detainees at the Everglades facility have called the conditions there deplorable, writing in a court filing that some detainees are showing symptoms of COVID-19 without being separated from the general population. Rainwater floods their tents and officers go cell-to-cell pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before they\u2019re allowed to consult their attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecent conditions at Alligator Alcatraz have fueled a sense of desperation among detainees,\u201d the attorneys said in the court filing.<\/p>\n

Conditions at the hastily built detention center were outlined in a filing made Wednesday ahead of a hearing Monday over the legal rights of the detainees. Civil rights attorneys want U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to their lawyers, which the lawyers say they haven\u2019t had.<\/p>\n

They also wanted the judge to identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detention center so that petitions can be filed for the detainees\u2019 bond or release. The civil rights attorneys say they\u2019ve been told regularly that federal immigration courts in Florida don\u2019t have jurisdiction over the detainees held in the Everglades.<\/p>\n

___ Associated Press writer Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3881,69,6064,723,57,76602,409,7310,14517,2399,50,80,2938,86154,14516,3676,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-145432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-fl-state-wire","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-immigrant-detention","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-jacksonville","17":"tag-kevin-guthrie","18":"tag-kristi-noem","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-prisons","22":"tag-rodolfo-ruiz","23":"tag-ron-desantis","24":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115027889563175590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}