Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is planning to open a second immigration detention center at an empty state prison in North Florida as a federal judge weighs a legal challenge seeking to shut down the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in the Everglades.

The new center at the Baker Correctional Institution near Lake City will hold more than 1,300 detainees in support of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, DeSantis said Thursday.

State officials have dubbed the new facility the “Deportation Depot.”

“Florida is making a difference,” DeSantis said. “This is a priority for the people of our state. It’s a priority for the people of this country.”

The Florida Department of Corrections closed the Baker Correctional Institution in 2021 as part of a consolidation plan.

DeSantis considered opening a second immigration detention facility at Camp Blanding, a Florida National Guard training site southwest of Jacksonville, but he said the Baker Correctional Institution was deemed to be a better choice.

It would have cost up to $100 million to open a detention center at Camp Blanding, compared with only $6 million for the Baker facility, said Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency management chief.

Last week, a federal judge ordered a 14-day halt on construction at the South Florida immigration detention center opened in early July at a lightly used airfield in the Everglades. The temporary order stopped short of shutting down operations.

Environmental groups and a Native American tribe sued over the facility, arguing it did not undergo the proper reviews.

Detainees at the North Florida center will be housed in existing dormitories surrounded by a 12-foot chain-link fence with razor wire, Guthrie said. He estimated it’ll take about two weeks to ready the facility, which will be retrofitted with external cooling units to provide air conditioning. Temporary dorms could bring the capacity to 2,000.

The facility will meet state and federal standards, and detainees will have access to three meals a day, medical services, laundry, indoor and outdoor recreation, and legal and religious services, Guthrie said.

Descriptions from detainees, their families and attorneys of conditions at the South Florida detention center, though, have differed from the government’s. Advocates called the facility “unlivable,” describing cage-like holding cells, unsanitary conditions and inadequate food and medical services. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, alleging detainees weren’t being given access to lawyers.

State and federal officials have defended the conditions, saying the facility meets all required standards. DeSantis dismissed the detainees’ concerns in an interview with reporters Thursday.

“They are not entitled to toasted hoagies, I’m sorry,” DeSantis said. “This idiocy that I hear … some of these liberal representatives: ‘Oh, are they allowed to go up to the buffet for seconds? I’m like, ‘That’s what you’re complaining about.'”

About 1,000 detainees are being held at the South Florida facility, which is designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 people, state officials said.

It’s estimated to cost about $450 million a year to operate 5,000 immigration detention center beds in Florida, according to figures provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

State officials will be able to recoup their costs from the federal government, Guthrie said.

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