Florida prepares to build a second immigration detention center to join
'Alligator Alcatraz'
[August 06, 2025]
By KATE PAYNE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis '
administration is apparently preparing to build a second immigration
detention center, awarding at least one contract for what’s labeled in
state records as the “North Detention Facility.”
The site would add to the capacity at the state's first detention
facility, built at an isolated airfield in the Florida Everglades and
dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz." Already, state officials have inked more
than $245 million in contracts for that facility, which officially
opened July 1.
Florida plans to build a second detention center at a Florida National
Guard training center called Camp Blanding, about 27 miles (43
kilometers) southwest of downtown Jacksonville, though DeSantis has said
the state is waiting for federal officials to ramp up deportations from
the South Florida facility before building out the Camp Blanding site.
“We look forward to the increased cadence,” of deportations, DeSantis
said last month, calling the state “ready, willing and able” to expand
its operations.
Civil rights advocates and environmental groups have filed lawsuits
against the Everglades facility, where detainees allege they've been
forced to go without adequate food and medical care, and been barred
from meeting with their attorneys, held without any charges and unable
to get a federal immigration court to hear their cases.
President Donald Trump has touted the facility’s harshness and
remoteness as fit for the “worst of the worst," while Department of
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said the South Florida
detention center can serve as a model for other state-run holding
facilities for immigrants.
Plans for the ‘North Detention Facility’
The Florida Division of Emergency Management, the state agency that
built the Everglades facility, has awarded a $39,000 contract for a
portable emergency response weather station and two lightning sirens for
what's been dubbed the “North Detention Facility," according to records
in the state’s public contract database. The equipment will help enable
“real-time weather monitoring and safety alerting for staff."
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A sign marks the entrance to Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, a
site used by the Florida National Guard, near Starke, Fla., July 15,
2025. (AP Photo/David Fischer, File)
The contract comes as the state approaches the peak of hurricane season,
and as heavy rains and extreme heat have pounded parts of Florida.
Immigrant advocates and environmentalists have raised a host of concerns
about the Everglades facility, a remote compound of heavy-duty tents and
trailers that state workers and contractors assembled in a matter of
days.
Last week, FDEM released a heavily redacted draft emergency evacuation
plan for what the document called the “South Florida Detention
Facility.” Entire sections related to detainee transportation,
evacuation and relocation procedures were blacked out, under a Florida
law that allows state agencies to make their emergency plans
confidential. Despite multiple public records requests by The Associated
Press, the department has not produced other evacuation plans,
environmental impact studies or agency analyses for the facility.
Questioned by reporters on July 25, FDEM executive director Kevin
Guthrie defended the emergency response agency's plans for the makeshift
facility, which he says is built to withstand a Category 2 hurricane,
which packs winds of up to 110 mph.
“I promise you that the hurricane guys have got the hurricane stuff
covered,” Guthrie said.
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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.
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