Citing 'capacity,' DeSantis says Camp Blanding can be state's next 'Alligator Alcatraz'
'We have some capacity there,' DeSantis said of the sprawling Guard property southwest of Jacksonville in Clay County countryside near Starke.
DeSantis raised the idea of using Camp Blanding while discussing plans for a Southwest Florida facility nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz to be built at a disused airfield in the Everglades, saying the federal Department of Homeland Security would benefit by having somewhere besides local jails to hold people for immigration processing.
More: Immigration raid in Florida capital leaves families searching for loved ones – and answers
'We can't have every illegal housed in our jails because we have non-illegals who need to be housed there,' the governor said.
So, 'Alligator Alcatraz it is, and so you will see that be done,' DeSantis said. '… It will be a force multiplier. It will help DHS. It will help our state and local law enforcement with relieving some burden on resources. We'll probably also do something similar up in Camp Blanding.'
The governor offered no details but said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the state's Division of Emergency Management, was 'working on that. So, we'll have a formal announcement on both of those [locations] very, very quickly.'
While circumstances are different, this wouldn't be the first time Camp Blanding has been used to house non-Americans.
During World War II, German civilians who were detained in Latin America as enemy aliens were moved to the camp in the summer of 1942 and the property later became a camp for German prisoners of war, the Florida Historical Quarterly recounted in 1979.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Camp Blanding could be state's next 'Alligator Alcaraz,' DeSantis says
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