About three weeks after federal detainees began to arrive at what appears to be the only state-run migrant detention facility in the country, Governor Ron DeSantis revealed Friday that the first deportation flights from Florida’s new immigration detention center in the Everglades had begun leaving this week.
Although he did not say where they were transferred, the governor stated that roughly 100 of those captives were deported straight from the facility, which Florida officials have christened Alligator Alcatraz. At a news conference, he claimed that hundreds more had been transported to federal deportation sites in other states, including Louisiana. “The Department of Homeland Security operated the flights,” he stated.
The Everglades detention center is just a collection of hurriedly constructed tents and trailers on an abandoned airfield, and immigration experts have called it the only one of its sort. According to Mr. DeSantis, it had 5,000 gallons of jet fuel on hand, radar, runway illumination, and ground-to-air communications.
According to him, this airport can handle both daytime and evening operations and can accommodate commercial aviation aircraft.
Immigration attorneys claim they have not had sufficient access to clients being held at the facility, despite state officials claiming the inmates there had final deportation orders from the federal government. Due process breaches and detainees’ lack of access to legal representation prompted the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit last week.
According to a statement from Eunice Cho, senior counsel with the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project and one of the case’s lead attorneys, the U.S. Constitution forbids the government from merely locking people up without giving them the opportunity to speak with legal representation or to ask the court for their release.
On-site lawyer visits should begin on Monday, according to Kevin Guthrie, chairman of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, who stated on Friday that technological issues prevented them from starting earlier.
The detention facility is bordered by protected territory, and environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit to stop its development. During the press conference, Mr. Guthrie dismissed environmental concerns. It was not immediately able to verify his assertion that the facility, an outdated training airport, once saw over a hundred aircraft every day.
The former Miami-Dade County airstrip is being used by the state under emergency powers. Daniella Levine Cava, the mayor of the county, reiterated her appeal on Friday for state representatives to provide county authorities access to the detention facility so they may perform oversight.
Prior to the creation and implementation of this facility, your office did not formally communicate with the county, and she said in a letter to Mr. Guthrie that numerous attempts to seek transparency had been turned down or ignored. All operations conducted on county-owned property should be fully accountable to our residents.
Last month, Florida officials rushed to construct the center, citing the ability of deportation planes to take off from the center’s remote, marshy site as one of the reasons. The state’s Republican attorney general, James Uthmeier, told Fox News on June 25 that the 11,000-foot runway will allow huge planes to fly in and out and carry hundreds and hundreds of people.
According to Mr. DeSantis, the prison facility can currently house a few thousand inmates. According to Mr. Guthrie, state representatives intended to increase that capacity to roughly 4,000. Mr. DeSantis reaffirmed his intentions for the state to establish a second detention facility in North Florida in the event that the current one fills up.
In an attempt to expedite deportations, the DeSantis administration has attempted to assign Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General Corps members to act as immigration judges at the Everglades center. According to Mr. DeSantis, the state has not yet received that consent from the federal government.
Poor circumstances within the prison facility, such as inadequate food and intermittent baths, have been reported by detainees. Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Guthrie defended the conditions in heated interviews with a number of news reporters, with Mr. DeSantis making fun of the detainees for requesting toasted hoagies.
Larry Keefe, the executive director of a new state agency that is in charge of immigration matters, informed the board on Tuesday that Florida has also created a pilot program to encourage undocumented individuals to self-deport. Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Uthmeier, the state’s chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, and the state’s agriculture commissioner, Wilton Simpson, make up the board.
According to Mr. Keefe, the self-deportation program in Florida, which is in collaboration with Customs and Border Protection, is different from a federal program that provides undocumented individuals with a $1,000 cash stipend and a plane ticket to return home.
From Washington, Hamed Aleaziz provided reporting assistance.
