DeSantis to open second illegal immigrant detention facility in Florida, call it 'Deportation Depot'

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced plans to open a second state-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility to detain arrested illegal migrants and called it "Deportation Depot."

DeSantis said that the new detention facility will be at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles west of Jacksonville, according to the Associated Press. The facility is expected to house 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, according to state officials.

The facility comes after DeSantis opened “Alligator Alcatraz,” Florida's first such facility, in the Everglades last month. The governor said that the second detention center was needed by the Trump administration to hold and deport more immigrants.

“There is a demand for this,” he said. “I’m confident that it will be filled.”

He noted the relative ease of setting up the new facility at a pre-existing prison, estimating the build-out cost to be $6 million.

“This part of the facility is not being used right now for state prisoners. It just gives us an ability to go in, stand it up quickly, stand it up cheaply,” DeSantis said of the state prison, adding the site is “ready-made.”

Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said that making the facility operational could take two to three weeks.

In 2021, Florida had announced plans to “temporarily” close the prison because of persistent staffing shortages.

“A building that’s been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges,” Guthrie said regarding the construction timeline.

One of the renovations needed is air conditioning, which is not required under Florida’s standards for its prisons.

DeSantis said that the Florida National Guard and state contractors will handle staffing at the facility “as needed.”

For more than two years, the state’s National Guard had been called on to help run the state’s prisons due to chronic staff shortages, before being used to support Florida’s immigration enforcement efforts.