Florida seeks to expand its network of migrant detention centers

A massive industrial warehouse located about 30 minutes from Walt Disney World in central Florida could be converted into a new migrant detention center. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted an “exploratory tour” of the building last week as part of a preliminary assessment to expand the state’s immigrant detention capacity.

Governor Ron DeSantis has made it clear since September that he is looking to expand the state’s network of detention centers toward the west coast, because the existing facilities — Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades outside Miami and Deportation Depot to the north, near the Georgia border — are too far away.

At the beginning of the year, in a press conference outside Deportation Depot — a former men’s prison that was repurposed to process migrants — DeSantis said he was awaiting “approval” from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prepare another detention center in the Florida Panhandle region — the narrow strip of the peninsula that stretches westward between Alabama and the Gulf of Mexico.

“If they approve, we will open. If they don’t, then we will stand by, and that’s fine. I think it should be approved since I don’t think they’re where they need to be on detention space,” DeSantis said in a speech where he boasted that the state has detained 20,000 immigrants under the Trump administration. He also said they were considering another option in South Florida, without providing details.

Last week, at a Mayo Clinic press conference, DeSantis assumed a supervisory role with the DHS, which he said he was willing to support with his administration’s “technical expertise” in the area of migrant detention. “I don’t want these [centers] to be permanent; I want the DHS to have sufficient logistical capacity to coordinate its operations without us having to provide them,” he stated.

The site ICE visited near Orlando is an industrial warehouse of more than 37,000 square meters, built in 2024 in an area surrounded by forest in Orange County, not far from Orlando International Airport. For comparison, the warehouse is three times larger than Alligator Alcatraz, which has a capacity of up to 3,000 people, according to authorities.

A promotional brochure for the facility indicates that it is a state-of-the-art warehouse, with high ceilings (approximately 11 meters of free height), nearly 100 loading docks, ample parking areas for trailers, and a small integrated office space — typical features of a distribution center.

On January 16, ICE representatives toured the warehouse. Local media filmed David Venturella — a senior ICE advisor who previously worked as an executive at the private prison company GEO Group before joining the Trump administration to help expand the migrant detention system — leaving the parking lot.

Venturella told the media that the visit had been an initial “exploratory” step, and that the warehouse “could” serve as a detention center, but that no final decision had been made. “We are at a very early stage,” he added.

DeSantis’s press office said in an email that “as the governor noted,” there is a possibility of enabling additional facilities; however, DHS has not yet approved anything and no decision has been made. Updates will be announced when more information becomes available. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

The warehouse is located within Orlando city limits and is zoned for industrial use. City officials have said they have not received any formal proposals or permit applications to use it as a detention center, according to local press reports.

“Humanitarian problems”

On Monday, at a press conference in Apopka, north of Orlando, Democratic lawmakers and local officials rejected the plan. County Commissioner Nicole Wilson pointed to “the humanitarian problems involved in converting loading docks into spaces with cots.”

State Representative Anna Eskamani told EL PAÍS that her position “is one of total opposition.” “That place is a commercial warehouse. It’s designed to store objects, not people. What they want is to detain you and store you as if you were an object, to pressure you into self-deportation,” she said.

According to Eskamani, a detention center in the area would have environmental and economic consequences for a popular tourist destination in Central Florida. She says local legislators are trying to pass a moratorium on any non-municipal detention center and that ICE would also need to obtain conditional use permits from the municipal planning board and city council for any potential rezoning.

“But honestly, I doubt they care about the rules, so a lot of this depends on whether they decide to follow them, because I don’t think they ultimately will,” she noted.

When the state erected Alligator Alcatraz with canvas tents over a former airport runway in a matter of eight days in late June, the governor invoked emergency powers to sideline the Miami-Dade mayor’s office, which barely received notification and a $20 million offer for the land.

In December, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is planning a sweeping overhaul of the migrant detention system, including the conversion of industrial warehouses into large detention centers. The plan proposes using at least seven large facilities to house approximately 80,000 detainees and expedite deportations. Newly arrested migrants would first be taken to processing centers and then transferred to detention centers located near major logistics hubs, the newspaper reported.

Florida’s migrant detention centers have been criticized by human rights organizations for dehumanizing conditions, overcrowding, and lack of legal access. At least 32 people died in immigration custody last year, five of them in Florida, according to official figures.

At Alligator Alcatraz, detainees have reported limited access to medical care, including emergency care, lack of drinking water, poor food and hygiene, and a lack of privacy to speak with their lawyers. Immigrant rights organizations have reported similar conditions at Deportation Depot.

The ICE visit comes amid Florida’s anti-immigrant offensive, Operation Tidal Wave, which, according to DeSantis, has resulted in more than 10,000 arrests of migrants. Nearly another 10,000 arrests have been made under agreements known as 287(g), which allows state and local law enforcement to collaborate with federal authorities on immigration operations, bringing the total to approximately 20,000 detentions. The Miami Herald reported this figure based on data compiled by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, which does not include arrests made by the Border Patrol. Almost a quarter of those detained had no criminal record, and half faced charges for non-violent offenses, such as driving without a license.

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