BAKER COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that he authorized the opening of an immigration detention center at the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, shifting plans away from the previously considered site at Camp Blanding.
DeSantis said the facility, dubbed “Deportation Depot,” will be able to house up to 1,300 detainees.
“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, and that’s what we do in Florida,” DeSantis said.
Press play above to watch DeSantis’ announcement on the new immigration facility
DeSantis had previously mentioned that the state was considering opening an immigration detention facility at Camp Blanding in Clay County, which serves as the Florida National Guard training headquarters.
However, the governor said on Thursday the focus shifted from Camp Blanding to the Baker Correctional Institution after Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie determined that Camp Blanding did not have the runway capacity that they were looking for, and that there was “a massive part” at the Baker Correctional Institution that is vacant.
The new facilty is only a 15-minute drive from Lake City Airport, allowing for rapid deportations.
“The reality is, although Blanding does have some air access, we were not going to be able to run the big flights out of that airstrip. We’re gonna have to go to Cecil Field anyways,” DeSantis said.
The Baker Correctional Institution was among three North Florida prisons that were temporarily closed in 2021 amid staffing shortages and a drop in inmate population during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been closed ever since.
“You talk about already-made infrastructure. This was something that was very appealing from that perspective, because it would require us to do a lot less in standing up than we would at Blanding and far less than we had to do at Alligator Alcatraz,” DeSantis said.
The governor said it will cost $6 million to get the facility “up and running,” and added that the costs will be reimbursed by the federal government.
The governor also said the facility “will have the same services” as the “Alligator Alcatraz” site in South Florida.
According to Guthrie, the facility can take two weeks to be fully operational.
“They will have three meals a day. They will have a 24/7 medical facility and pharmacy. They will have access to indoor and outdoor rec yards,” Guthrie said.
This new facility is 20 minutes away from the Baker County Detention Center, which houses immigration detainees.
The Baker County Detention Center has a long history of complaints and federal investigations over excessive use of force, language access issues and medical neglect.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties conducted an in-person visit at the facility in 2022 and found the facility had a “pervasive culture of racial discrimination, abuse and neglect” of the detainee population including “verbal abuse by staff, retaliation, and general lack of care.”