DeSantis is about to build another immigration detention camp at camp branding

TALHASSEE – The DeSantis administration is looking to build not one but two immigration detention camps in Florida.

While the building is already underway for the Everglades facility, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that his administration is working on building a second national immigration center at Camp Branding, a Florida State Guard base about an hour southwest of Jacksonville.

“These facilities will be forced multipliers for immigration enforcement in cooperation with the federal government,” Brian Griffin, communications director for DeSantis, said in a statement in the Times/Herald.

The possibility of having two immigration detention centers is based on Florida’s active immigration enforcement efforts, providing more detention space in the state that Desantis has urged local and state police to help federal immigration authorities identify and detain undocumented immigrants.

So far, the federal government appears to have only approved one detention center building. This is something mostly idle airfields deep in the Everglades. Construction is already underway at the site, with plans to begin housing detention immigration on July 1st. Individuals who are subject to U.S. immigrant and customs enforcement detention or who have received a final deportation order will be detained at an Everglades facility, Griffin said.

Griffin added that “camp branding spaces are also considered for these purposes,” but he did not say it was approved for use yet.

However, the space is available in the state. The Florida State Guard “is providing property for this project,” National Guard spokesperson Britiannie Funderbalk said in a statement in the Times/Herald. Funderburk declined to comment further, referring to the Governor’s office for questions about the project.

Griffin has vowed to financial support for the Everglades temporary detention center, but he has not said whether federal funds will be guaranteed at the camp’s branding site.

“Several sites are being used, including the so-called “Wannial Catraz,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week. The idea is to have up to 5,000 beds in Florida, totaling $450 million a year. This is about $245 a day.

At a press conference Wednesday, DeSantis said the operation of these detention centers was “just like we do in storms and hurricanes.”

“It’s all temporary and we set it up and we’ll break it down,” he said. “This isn’t the first rodeo.”

Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Reporter Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.