DeSantis Announces New ‘Deportation Depot’ Immigration Facility To Join ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida announced Thursday the opening of a second immigration detention facility, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” in an expansion of the state’s crackdown on illegal aliens.The facility, situated less than 20 miles east of Lake City and not far from the Georgia border, will complement the existing detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” which opened on July 1. The new site is not far from Alligator Lake Park.“The reason for this is not to just house people indefinitely. We want to process, stage, and then return illegal aliens to their home country. That is the name of the game,” the Republican governor said at a press conference.“You will have the same services that you have at Alligator Alcatraz. Costs will be reimbursed by our federal partners and, as I mentioned, Lake City Airport is right down the road, it’s 15 minutes away.”Deportation Depot will initially have the capacity to hold 1,300 detainees, with the Florida Emergency Management director, Kevin Guthrie, noting that temporary dormitories could expand that capacity to about 2,000. Mr. Guthrie also shared that operational costs are estimated at $6 million, significantly lower than the $75 million to $100 million projected for another facility that was planned and then rejected.“Timeline for construction on this, I think we’re going to be probably around 14, 15, 16 days, but again, as the governor said in his prepared remarks, we want to make sure that we do everything right,” Mr. Guthrie said.“You know, a building that’s been dormant now for a couple of years is going to have some unforeseen challenges that we did not see at the naked eye so, you know, our timeline is probably going to be about two weeks, but again, we may run into some challenges.”Immigration enforcement has been a priority for Mr. DeSantis, who made headlines earlier this year by signing what he called “the toughest anti-illegal immigration bill in the country.” The legislation passed during a special session of the Florida legislature, leading to heightened state involvement in federal immigration efforts.Mr. DeSantis deputized law enforcement officials statewide to cooperate with federal agencies and used emergency powers earlier this summer to establish the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a remote airfield in the Everglades. The center, housing some 4,000 detainees, has since launched deportation flights.“We have what we want at Alligator Alcatraz, we probably could do some more, but we were looking at a demand signal that is strong and we did need this. We were always planning on doing it, I just wanted to be sure that the demand was there. The demand is there,” Mr. DeSantis said.“This is a priority for the people of our state. This is a priority for the people of this country.”

DeSantis Announces New ‘Deportation Depot’ Immigration Facility To Join ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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