SANDERSON, Fla. \u2014 The Florida Division of Emergency Management confirmed Friday that the new immigration detention facility dubbed \u201cDeportation Depot\u201d by Gov. Ron DeSantis is officially open and receiving detainees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previous Florida Detention Center Headlines<\/p>\n
The governor announced the additional facility in August<\/a>, saying the facility will have the capacity to hold more than 1,300 detainees, and would be set up with the same services as the \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d facility. He announced at the time that the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson would be used to create the new detention center.<\/p>\n \u201cBaker Correctional Institution in Sanderson will now serve as a \u2018Deportation Depot\u2019 to detain and process illegal immigrants for removal, building on the success the state has had with Alligator Alcatraz,\u201d DeSantis said last week. \u201cWe\u2019ll enforce the law, we\u2019ll hold the line, and we will keep delivering results.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis also said that state leaders are in talks with law enforcement in the Panhandle to open another facility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re actually in the process of figuring out how we can set up a ‘Panhandle Pokey’, and we are going to have that in the Panhandle. So the mission continues,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n This would make the third detention center after the opening of the \u201cDeportation Depot\u201d near Jacksonville in Baker County.<\/p>\n The governor also said he is confident that the federal government will reimburse the state to cover the millions of taxpayer dollars he spent to get \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d up and running.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything we\u2019re doing on this mission, everything we\u2019re doing is reimbursable from FEMA<\/a>,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n The state also has been cleared to continue to use \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d to hold additional detainees after an appellate court blocked an injunction issued by a federal judge.<\/p>\n