Detention Center Likely at Camp Blanding

By The News Service of Florida

Amid controversy about a plan to build a detention facility for undocumented immigrants in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said a similar facility probably will be added at North Florida’s Camp Blanding.

DeSantis said state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie is working on the plan for Camp Blanding, a 73,000-acre site used by the Florida National Guard for training. “We have some capacity there, so Kevin Guthrie (and the) Division of Emergency Management are working on that,” DeSantis said during an appearance in Tampa. “So we’ll have a formal announcement on both of those very, very quickly.”

DeSantis also defended the plan to create what has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, an airstrip surrounded by the Everglades. DeSantis said the South Florida project would be funded by the federal government and argued it would have “zero” environmental impact on the Everglades.