The governor made the announcement during a news conference outside the facility, which is listed as temporarily closed on the Florida Department of Corrections website.
The facility will be the second in the state, after the Everglades facility that opened in July.
Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said the unit will accommodate 1,310 beds and hold up to 2,000 people in a temporary capacity.
“This is definitely the right decision to do. We are going to be able to fulfill, utilize these resources. The demand is there and our guys are ready, willing, and able to help our federal partners in this really, really important mission,” DeSantis said.
The correctional institute is situated about 50 miles north of Gainesville and 50 miles west of Jacksonville.
Guthrie said the facility will provide the same services offered at the Everglades detention facility, including three meals per day, pharmacy, access to recreation yards, legal and clergy services, laundry, and “everything that is required under federal or state law.”
The facility is 15 minutes away from the Lake City airport, which DeSantis said “is good, something that will make a difference.”
“This will be operational soon. It’s not going to take forever but we’re also not rushing to do it right this day. They’re doing what they need to do to get it done in all deliberate speed,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said the projects, this one and the Everglades detention facility combined, will come under budget of what the federal government will reimburse.
The project will cost $6 million to build out, DeSantis said, and would have cost “a lot more” if done at Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard base in Starke previously proposed as the next immigrant deportation facility in the state.
The Baker site was “very appealing” because it requires “a lot less in standing up than we would at Blanding and far less than we had to do at Alligator Alcatraz,” he said
The DeSantis administration has dubbed it “Deportation Depot,” taking on another alliterative name like the Everglades detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The National Guard said it will activate 200 additional guardsmen this month at 10 Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities across Florida.
Guardsmen will “support emerging requirements here in Baker County and other locations across the state as directed by the governor,” Major General John D. Haas said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida commented on the new project.
“DeSantis is pushing to open yet another inhumane immigration detention center — this one with capacity for 1,300 people — just miles from Baker County Detention Center, a facility infamous for human rights violations, sexual abuse, and repeated lawsuits,” the organization said in an email to the Florida Phoenix.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging mistreatment against an immigrant in ICE custody at a Baker County facility in 2023.
“Floridians’ taxpayer dollars shouldn’t fund Trump’s overreaching and inhumane mass deportation agenda,” the ACLU said.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried reacted to the facility, and the financial implications of such facilities, Thursday in a news release.
“These inhumane facilities reward massive, taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts to politically connected businesses and corporate elite donors. DeSantis is funneling millions of tax dollars from the working and middle class to fill the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of immigrants who have come to our State seeking a better life for their families,” Fried said.
“Floridians want their tax dollars going toward real solutions like fixing the insurance crisis, expanding Medicaid, funding public schools, and building affordable housing, not lining the pockets of corporate donors getting rich off of detention camps.”
Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani suggested via social media that the second facility “is very likely motivated by the risk of the Everglades Immigration Detention Camp closing via court order.”
That facility has been subject of legal disputes for environmental impacts.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
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This article appears in Aug 13-18, 2025.