Deportation flights have started at the state-run immigrant detention center in the Everglades more than three weeks after the first detainees arrived, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday.
The federal government has deported 100 people held at the notorious site in an old airstrip and flown out hundreds more to other hubs, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s staging facility in Louisiana, DeSantis said during the on-site press conference.
“You’re going to see the cadence on these flights start to pick up, obviously,” he said. “Honestly, to get to where we were the beginning of this month, and now have flights leaving already with a facility that’s been built out, that’s incredible.”
Two dozen people chose to self-deport from the detention center at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, the governor said.
An ICE spokesperson refused to answer questions about the deportation flights, directing Florida Phoenix to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. That state agency is in charge of the state-run detention center, but the federal government operates deportations.
ICE arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions or charges surge in Florida
The governor also continued defending the state’s operation of the detention center, dismissing detainee accounts about rotting food, denial of medical care, scarce access to showers, and malfunctioning toilets. Immigrants at the detention center in the Everglades are also demanding access to their attorneys in a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE, DeSantis, and the head of DEM.
DEM director Kevin Guthrie grew increasingly agitated while defending the conditions at the detention center.
“So again, simple answer: Absolute crap,” he said. “We have on this facility, the ability of a full-fledged medical center with X-ray capability, sonogram capability, prescription med capability.”
The emergency head also scoffed at questions about the bidding process for the hundreds of millions in contracts for the detention center the state removed from a public database. Guthrie said the line item details of the contracts were removed so other competitors couldn’t see the rate the state paid.
“You got me riled back up again. Sorry about that,” he said.
Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani has been one of the most ardent critics of the $245 million AP has reported the state has spent on the detention center. She has pointed out the deletion of the contracts from the state’s database on X.
“This entire press conference at the Everglades Immigrant Detention Camp is all about damage control,” she wrote on X. “We have an administration that is actively hiding contracts, information, and detainees from the public. Hundreds who are NOT criminals. And doing it all on the public’s dime.”
Eskamani is one of five Democrats in the state Legislature suing the DeSantis administration to gain oversight access to the detention center.
Although the press conference was at the detention center, press were not allowed inside. DeSantis sustained the decision, saying journalists had toured when President Donald Trump visited on July 1.
“Here’s the thing. This is not a spectacle. Okay?” DeSantis said. “You don’t get to go into other facilities willy nilly either.”
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 Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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