State Rep. Angie Nixon criticized plans for an immigration detention center in Baker County. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 15, 2025 at 12:13 pm
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Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis for his plans to open “another wildly expensive and inhumane immigration detention facility paid for by Florida’s taxpayers.”
“There is already an immigration detention center in Baker County that is notorious for its reprehensible treatment of detainees, and a second facility promises more of the same,” Fried said Thursday in a statement.
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She said such facilities “reward massive, taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts to politically connected businesses and corporate elite donors.”
“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,” Fried said.
DeSantis announced Thursday that his administration is preparing to open a second immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot” at a state prison in Baker County.
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READ MORE: DeSantis announces ‘Deportation Depot’ in Baker County
The new facility is to be housed at the Baker Correctional Institution, a state prison about 43 miles west of Downtown Jacksonville. It is expected to hold 1,300 immigration detention beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, expressed frustration and disappointment about the plans.
Nixon said the money spent on the facility could be used to help people in the state who are struggling, according to News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.
Earlier this summer, Nixon and other lawmakers toured the controversial immigration facility in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” after she and four other democratic lawmakers tried to view it unannounced and were denied entry.
Nixon called that tour “sanitized” but said she heard detainees saying “muy mal,” which translates to very bad.
“This isn’t doing anything for us. This isn’t helping us. This isn’t making our country great again. This isn’t making Florida great again,” Nixon said.
After opening Alligator Alcatraz last month, DeSantis justified building the second detention center by saying President Donald Trump’s administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants.
“There is a demand for this,” DeSantis said. “I’m confident that it will be filled.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has trumpeted Republican governors’ efforts to expand immigration detention capacity, calling Florida’s partnership a model for other state-run holding facilities.
DeSantis touted the relative ease and economy of setting up the north facility at a preexisting prison, estimating the build-out cost to be $6 million. That’s compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has committed to construct the vast network of tents and trailers at the south facility in the rugged and remote Florida swamp.
“This part of the facility is not being used right now for the state prisoners. It just gives us an ability to go in, stand it up quickly, stand it up cheaply,” DeSantis said of the state prison, calling the site “ready-made.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
