DeSantis looking to build second state-run migrant detention center in Florida

The DeSantis administration is looking to build not one, but two immigration detention camps in Florida — one in the Everglades nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz and the other on a military base in North Florida.

While building is already underway for the Everglades facility, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that his administration is working on erecting a second, state-run immigration center at Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard base located about an hour southwest of Jacksonville.

“These facilities will be force multipliers for immigration enforcement in cooperation with the federal government,” DeSantis’ communications director Bryan Griffin said in a statement to the Herald/Times.

The possibility of having two immigration detention centers would build on Florida’s aggressive immigration enforcement effort and provide more detention space in a state where DeSantis has pushed local and state police to help federal immigration authorities identify and detain undocumented immigrants.

So far, it appears the federal government has only approved building one detention center — the one located on a mostly idle airfield deep in the Everglades. Construction is already underway at that location, with plans to start housing detained immigrants as early as July 1. Individuals who are subject to ICE detainers or have final deportation orders will be held at the Everglades facility, Griffin said.

Griffin added that the “space at Camp Blanding is also being considered for these purposes,” but did not say it had been approved for use yet.

But the space is available to the state. The Florida National Guard is “providing real estate for this project,” Brittianie Funderburk, a spokeswoman for the National Guard, said in a statement to the Herald/Times. Funderburk declined to comment further, referring questions about the project to the governor’s office.

Griffin said the Trump administration has pledged financial support for the temporary detention center in the Everglades, but did not say whether federal funds will be guaranteed at the Camp Blanding site.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement this week that “several sites are being considered for use, including so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’” The idea is to have up to 5,000 beds in Florida, at a total approximate cost of $450 million a year. That is roughly $245 a bed per day.

At the news conference Wednesday, DeSantis said running these detention centers will be “just like we do in storms and hurricanes.”

“It’s all temporary, we set it up, we break it down,” he said. “This isn’t the first rodeo.”

Tampa Bay Times reporter Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.

This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM.