Not just 'Alligator Alcatraz': DeSantis floats building another immigration detention center

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida officials are pursuing plans to build a second detention center to house immigrants, as part of the state's aggressive push to support the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he's considering standing up a facility at a Florida National Guard training center known as Camp Blanding, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jacksonville in northeast Florida, in addition to the site under construction at a remote airstrip in the Everglades that state officials have dubbed '' Alligator Alcatraz.''

The construction of that facility in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami is alarming environmentalists, as well as human rights advocates who have slammed the plan as cruel and inhumane.

A detention center made of heavy-duty tents, trailers

Speaking to reporters at an event in Tampa, DeSantis touted the state's muscular approach to immigration enforcement and its willingness to help President Donald Trump's administration meet its goal of more than doubling its existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds nationwide.

State officials have said the detention facility, which they've described as temporary, will rely on heavy-duty tents, trailers, and other impermanent buildings, allowing the state to operationalize 5,000 immigration detention beds by early July and free up space in local jails.

''I think the capacity that will be added there will help the overall national mission. It will also relieve some burdens of our state and local (law enforcement),'' DeSantis said.

Managing the facility ''via a team of vendors'' will cost $245 a bed per day, or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses are to be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In the eyes of DeSantis and other state officials, the remoteness of the Everglades airfield, surrounded by mosquito- and alligator-filled wetlands that are seen as sacred to Native American tribes, makes it an ideal place to detain migrants.

''Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's a lot of alligators,'' he said. ''No one's going anywhere.''

Critics condemn the plan as cruel

Democrats and activists have condemned the plan as a callous, politically motivated spectacle.

''What's happening is very concerning, the level of dehumanization,'' said Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee.

''It's like a theatricalization of cruelty,'' she said.

Advocates were already sounding the alarm about conditions at a federally-run detention center in South Florida, where reports have poured in about a lack of water and food, unsanitary confinement and medical neglect.

DeSantis is relying on state emergency powers to commandeer the county-owned airstrip and build the compound, over the concerns of county officials, environmentalists and human rights advocates.

Now the state is considering standing up another site at a National Guard training facility in northeast Florida as well.

''We'll probably also do something similar up at Camp Blanding,'' DeSantis said, adding that the Florida Division of Emergency Management is ''working on that.''

Evacuation plans for hurricane season

State officials have said they're drafting evacuation plans in the event detainees have to be relocated ahead of a natural disaster, as Florida braces for what forecasters have warned could be another unusually busy hurricane season.

Hurricane preparations are happening at the same time as site development planning, a spokesperson for DeSantis said, adding that having emergency storm plans in place is ''standard procedure'' for all state facilities.

''The facility will be evacuated if a tropical cyclone with windspeeds higher than the temporary facility's wind rating is forecasted to impact the area,'' said Molly Best, deputy press secretary for DeSantis. She did not specify what the site's wind rating is.

''FDEM is coordinating with several partners on potential locations for relocation, but ultimately it will be scenario dependent based on facility population and the projected storm path,'' Best said.

The significant investment of resources into immigration enforcement by Florida's emergency management agency comes as some officials were already raising concerns about the department's ability to respond to disasters, as federal support for the work dwindles.

Trump has said he'll begin ''phasing out'' the federal agency that responds to disasters after the 2025 hurricane season, a change that will likely put more responsibilities on states to provide services following storms.

___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.