Florida Is Prepping for Alligator Alcatraz 2.0, Records Show

As operations continue at Florida's controversial Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention site, the state appears to be getting ready to open a second facility in northeast Florida.

In early July, after President Donald Trump toured the newly unveiled state-run detention center in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans for another facility at Camp Blanding, a 73,000-acre military training site for the Florida National Guard located in a rural area of Clay County near Jacksonville.

At a Tampa press conference, DeSantis said the site would hold up to 2,000 detainees and be up and running once Alligator Alcatraz reaches full capacity.

"As [Alligator Alcatraz] fills, once there's a demand, then we would be able to go for Camp Blanding," DeSantis said.  While the exact opening date for the Camp Blanding facility remains unclear, public records obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat show that preparations appear to be underway.

Florida's Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), the state agency in charge of Alligator Alcatraz, is already purchasing a WeatherSTEM emergency response weather station and several lighting sirens for the facility, which is referred to in records as the "North Detention Facility," according to a $39,000 state contract. (WeatherSTEM is a Tallahassee-based weather technology company.)

Camp Blanding sits less than 30 miles from Cecil Airport, a public airport in Jacksonville that could potentially serve as a deportation hub — similar to how the state has begun flying detainees out of Alligator Alcatraz, built on the grounds of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

Florida previously identified "several-and-mortar locations" in northeast and south central Florida that could serve as detention centers, according to the state's "blueprint" for mass deportation. However, aside from Alligator Alcatraz and Camp Blanding, it remains unclear where any other detention centers would be located.

Alligator Alcatraz, the state-run immigration detention facility in the middle of the swampy Everglades, opened in early July at an estimated cost of $450 million per year. FDEM quickly constructed the site, which officials say will detain more than 3,000 people. The Trump administration has touted the facility as a place to hold the "worst of the worst" criminals before removing them from the country.

Since detainees first arrived at the remote site, they've reported inhumane and unsanitary conditions, including relentless swarms of giant mosquitoes, extreme temperature swings, and inadequate medical care.

One man told New Times that after the toilets stopped working and staff failed to intervene, detainees were forced to remove human waste by hand to use the bathroom.

Because immigration enforcement is typically handled by the federal government — and Alligator Alcatraz is run by the state — detainees held there don't appear in the usual U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement database.
Immigration attorneys, who say they've had limited access to their clients, have described it as a "black hole."

Recently, two federal judges in Miami pressed the DeSantis and Trump administrations to answer a basic question: Who is actually in charge there?