.-') _ .-') _ | |
( OO ) ) ( OO ) ) | |
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,' | |
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\ | |
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | ) | |
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/ | |
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ | | |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ | | |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--' | |
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Florida’s new immigrant detention site dubbed ‘Deportation Depot’ | |
is now taking detainees, officials say | |
By Isabel Rosales, Shawn Nottingham, Emma Tucker, CNN | |
Updated: | |
8:03 AM EDT, Sat September 6, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Florida has opened its second immigration detention site, dubbed | |
“,” amid an ongoing legal battle over its controversial | |
“Alligator Alcatraz” facility. | |
The facility is at a temporarily closed state prison, the Baker | |
Correctional Institution, which is housing 117 detainees with the | |
capacity to hold 1,500 people, according to the office of Gov. Ron | |
DeSantis. It is about 45 miles west of Jacksonville near the Osceola | |
National Forest. | |
“Deportation Depot” opened a day after a federal appeals court | |
temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring the state and federal | |
government to shut down “,” located deep in the marshy wetlands of | |
the Everglades. | |
The facility, wrapped in tall, wire fencing, is made up of a number of | |
a squat, single-story buildings. Guard towers are positioned | |
strategically around the campus and, out front, a Humvee is parked next | |
to a white pop-up tent. | |
Other states have announced similar sites to supplement what the Trump | |
administration has described as limited capacity in immigration | |
detention centers nationwide. “Deportation Depot” is part of that | |
equation and just one part of the Florida governor’s push for an | |
expansion of the state’s detention centers to hold immigrants. | |
DeSantis is doubling down on his plans to build a third detention site | |
in Florida’s panhandle, which he has called “Panhandle Pokey,” | |
along with another facility at a Florida National Guard training center | |
known as , roughly 30 miles southwest of Jacksonville. | |
Other proposed immigration facilities include Indiana’s “” and | |
Louisiana’s “Camp 57,” located at the country’s largest | |
maximum-security prison. The Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly | |
known as Angola, is an 18,000-acre facility situated an hour north of | |
Baton Rouge. | |
The new detention facilities are emerging as the White House to make at | |
least 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day as part of the | |
administration’s mass deportation efforts. | |
Many detainees have so far been sent to Guantanamo Bay or deported to . | |
Back in Florida, “Deportation Depot” was just before a federal | |
judge placed a preliminary injunction on “Alligator Alcatraz” that | |
would have effectively shut that site down. | |
Since a federal appeals court stayed the lower court’s order to force | |
the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz,” the state has said it will | |
continue transporting detainees out of there. | |
The ruling was a major blow to environmental groups, who asking a judge | |
to block operations and construction at the site until environmental | |
laws are followed. | |
The Everglades site had been the subject of intense criticism for its | |
treatment of migrants who had been confined there amid , prompting | |
members of Congress and state representatives that witnessed the | |
conditions to demand its immediate closure. | |
<- back to index |