Despite backlash surrounding Florida's emerging "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention facility in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis already has his sights set on another center for captured non-citizens:
Camp Blanding, the training base for the Florida National Guard.
"We'll probably do something similar up at Camp Blanding, which is where our National Guard headquarters to train," DeSantis said at a Tampa press conference on Wednesday. "We have some capacity there."
He revealed that Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, is working on opening a migrant detention facility at or near the Guard's north-central Florida location, but a "formal announcement" will be coming "very, very quickly."
Attorney General James Uthmeier, formerly DeSantis's Chief of Staff, first pitched "Alligator Alcatraz" last week. He said that Florida could easily convert the defunct Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on the outskirts of the Everglades into a "low-cost" sixth detention center for undocumented immigrants.
The high heat, miles of swamp, and alligators would serve as the natural perimeter to prevent escapes.
Approved by federal authorities on Monday, Uthmeier announced that the facility will be up and running by early July, complete with 1,000 beds, 39 square miles, and an over 10,000-foot-long runway. Critics of the move include the Miccosukee Tribe, whose reservation borders the airport, and Miami-Dade's Democratic Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.
In a Monday letter to Guthrie, she asked for more details on the facility's development and any potential "impacts" to the Everglades, one of the country's largest national parks. On Wednesday, DeSantis said that there will be "zero" environmental impact.
The governor's emergency powers under a declared state of emergency issued in 2023 allowed him to seize the area and allow companies and state officers to enter the Dade-Collier property earlier this week to begin construction. This will include trailers and "heavy duty tents," Uthmeier had said.
The Miami Herald reported that Florida will run Alligator Alcatraz—and perhaps Camp Blanding—for $450 million a year, with the ability to seek reimbursement from the federal government.
“We will expand facilities and bed space in just a few days, thanks to our partnership with Florida,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to the Herald.
