DeSantis Says 'Deportation Depot' Migrant Detention Center is Open for Business

DeSantis Says 'Deportation Depot' Migrant Detention Center is Open for Business

Will there be legal challenges against Deportation Depot?

Michael Costeines
Michael Costeines
September 6, 2025

Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be full steam ahead on another illegal alien detention center staying open for business, just hours after a court ruled the original one could remain open. The governor, speaking on Fox News to Sean Hannity, said Florida's "Deportation Depot" would remain operational after opening last month.

“We’re not only doing Alligator Alcatraz, we’ve now opened the Deportation Depot up in Northeast Florida, and we’re working on opening a Panhandle Pokey in northwest Florida,” DeSantis said to Hannity on Fox News.

Deportation Depot comes after Alligator Alcatraz opened in July. The alliterative names appear to be continuing with "Panhandle Pokey," according to the governor.

Located at the Baker Correctional Institute in Sanderson, Deportation Depot, near Lake City Airport, is expected to hold up to 2,000 illegal aliens. Alligator Alcatraz is similarly located on an old abandoned airfield in the Everglades.

"We want a process, stage, and return illegal aliens to their home country. That is the name of the game," DeSantis said at a news conference on Deportation Depot. "And that's what we do in Florida. We know that this is an important national priority. Not only of President Trump, but the American people."

Yesterday, a federal appeals court blocked a lower court’s decision to close Alligator Alcatraz in a win for DeSantis.
Judge Kathleen Williams, back in August, ordered the facility to be shutdown within 60 days and blocked the state and the Trump administration, effectively immediately at the time, from transferring any new detainees there.
"They ran with the narrative, because some leftist judge ruled implausibly that somehow Florida wasn't allowed to use our own property to help the federal government in this important mission, because they didn't do an environmental impact statement," DeSantis said.
The governor, with that ruling adjudicated, took only a few hours to promote Florida's No. 2 and No. 3 detention centers on Thursday night.
Michael Costeines

Michael Costeines

Michael Costeines: Florida Political Correspondent/Capitol Reporter for The Floridian (2024-Present) Over 1000 stories written covering Gov. Gon DeSantis, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, the Florida GOP, State Legislature, and others Shared by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the White House, Florida GOP Chairman Evan Power, James Uthmeier and others

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