TALLAHASSEE — Florida on Tuesday started bringing immigrant detainees to the second migrant detention center the state has established this summer.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has dubbed the facility, a formerly vacant prison in Baker County, “Deportation Depot.”
About 115 people being held at the north Florida facility now, according to a Fox News clip shared by a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The spokesperson did not answer whether there have been any deportation flights out of the nearby Lake City airport.
The Fox News clip shows rows of bunk beds with twin-sized green mattresses in one room. The north Florida detention center can hold about 1,300 people, according to the governor’s office.
That’s about half of the capacity of Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center Florida set up on an airstrip in the Everglades in late June.
For about two weeks, Florida and federal officials were not allowed to bring anyone new to Alligator Alcatraz after a federal judge ordered the facility shut down based on a lawsuit brought by environmental advocates.
BREAKING: Florida opens ‘Deportation Depot’ migrant detention facility at former Baker Correctional Institution outside Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/4iHtOhaXeV
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 5, 2025
But an appeals court this week put a stay on the judge’s order as the lawsuit continues, opening the door for the South Florida site to keep getting detainees. There are also at least two other lawsuits challenging the operation of Alligator Alcatraz.
DeSantis has also said he is eyeing opening a third center in the Panhandle.
