Ron DeSantis backtracks on promise to build second Alligator Alcatraz

Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be cooling off, for now at least, on a plan to build a second state-run immigrant detention center at the Florida National Guard training site in Clay County.

The governor won’t consider building another temporary detention facility at the Camp Blanding Joint Training Center until the one in the Everglades reaches capacity, saying during a Wednesday press conference in Tampa that the existing site could easily fit 3,000 to 4,000 people.

“But what I don’t want to do is set up Blanding if, you know, one is 60% full and then the other is 40%,” DeSantis said during the press conference. “I’d rather just channel everyone to [Alligator Alcatraz] since it’s easier.”

The governor visited Tampa to appoint Spring Hill Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as the state’s chief financial officer. He replaces Jimmy Patronis, who now serves in the U.S. House.

Last week, the governor said construction of an immigrant detention center in Camp Blanding would depend on demand from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But DeSantis’ recent comments marked a shift from the hype with which state officials spoke about it before detainees started arriving at the site at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management is the state agency in charge of the potential construction in Camp Blanding, which its top official teased during President Donald Trump’s visit to the Everglades detention center.

“I would say right after our wonderful Independence Day, we will be starting construction there in that facility,” DEM director Kevin Guthrie said during a roundtable with Trump on July 1.

Still, DeSantis said the immigrant detention center in the Everglades might reach capacity within the next two weeks.

So far, the state has lacked transparency about the number of people at the detention center, with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announcing that hundreds would start arriving on July 2.

The most detailed information about the detainees has come from the Miami Herald, which published a list on Sunday of the 750 detainees housed there, including more than 250 people without criminal convictions or pending charges in the country.

Answering questions about the timeline for opening a detention center at Camp Blanding, the governor has emphasized the bidding process for companies. Construction at the airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve took eight days and started days after Uthmeier publicly rolled out the plan.

“I don’t want to be creating some structure that can hold 2,000 illegal aliens, and then we end up having, like, 150 there after a week,” DeSantis said Wednesday.

The Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance has organized rallies against the plan for Camp Blanding, and it is planning another one on Saturday.

“We’re tired of political points and political careers being made off of the backs of hard-working Floridians, whether that be our immigrant brothers and sisters that are being persecuted and rounded up, or just the Floridian taxpayers, who are also underwater with bills,” said Maria Garcia-Rodriguez, a lead organizer for the alliance, in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix.