PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — They said they would and they did: Florida is about to have a second detention center for people held as undocumented.
The governor unveiled the state’s Baker Correctional Institution, north of Gainesville — that has been closed a few years — as now the “Deportation Depot.”
They say capacity will be 1,300 detainees. It will be staffed in part by the National Guard.
It needs air conditioning and some other work. Estimated opening: about two weeks.
The costs are estimated at $6 million to get up and running.
The governor also now says a $600 million federal grant will pay for both the Baker facility and the detention camp in the Everglades.
“Alligator Alcatraz” is now at the center of two lawsuits, both in Miami federal court.
Judge Kathleen Williams — who put a temporary hold on more building there — is expected to rule later this week whether to make that restraining order permanent, and whether the detention center was built in violation of federal environmental law.
A second lawsuit in another Miami federal courtroom gets underway Monday.
The American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant advocate organizations allege detainees are not getting legal access to attorneys, faulting the absence of a process and documentation about where they are taken.
Eunice Cho, the senior counsel with the ACLU National Prison Project and lead attorney on the case, joined “This Week in South Florida” Sunday to discuss the lawsuit.
Copyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
