TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials are pursuing plans to build a second detention center to detain immigrants as part of the state’s aggressive push to support federal crackdowns against illegal immigrants.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that he was considering building the facility at the Florida State Guard training center, known as camp branding, about 30 miles (48 kilometres) southwest of Jacksonville in northeastern Florida, in addition to the site being built in a remote location in Ebara called “Alligator Alcatraz.”
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The construction of the facility in a remote, ecologically sensitive wetland, about 45 miles (72 km) west of downtown Miami, is an astounding environmentalist and a human rights advocate who has condemned the plan as cruel and inhuman.
Speaking to reporters at an event in Tampa, DeSantis touted the state’s muscular approach to immigration enforcement and his willingness to help President Donald Trump’s administration achieve its goal of more than double the existing 41,000 beds to lock immigrants to at least 100,000 beds.
State officials say the detention facility, which is said to be temporary, relies on heavy-duty tents, trailers and other non-permanent buildings, allowing the state to operate 5,000 immigration detention beds by early July, allowing space to be released at local prisons.
“The ability to be added there will be useful for the overall national mission and will also ease some of the burden on our state and local (law enforcement),” DeSantis said.
Managing a facility “through a team of vendors” costs $245 a day, or about $450 million a year, US officials said. The costs will be incurred by Florida and will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In the eyes of DeSantis and other state officials, the remoteness of the Everglades Airfield, surrounded by mosquitoes and crocodile marsh, considered sacred by Native American tribes, makes it an ideal place to detain immigrants.
“Obviously, from a security standpoint, if someone runs away, there are a lot of crocodiles you know,” he said. “No one’s going anywhere.”
Democrats and activists have accused the plan of politically motivated soberness.
“What’s going on is very concerning about the level of dehumanization,” said Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida Campaign Coordinator for the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee.
“It’s like a theatricalization of cruelty,” she said.
Desantis relies on state emergency powers to direct county-owned runways and build compounds over the concerns of county officials, environmentalists and human rights advocates.
The state is currently considering setting up another site at a National Guard training facility in northeastern Florida.
“We’ll probably do the same with camp branding,” DeSantis said, adding that the state’s emergency management department is “working on that.”
