COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday during a news conference at “Alligator Alcatraz” that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has officially begun flying detainees out of the controversial Collier County migrant-detention facility.
“If you are in this country illegally, then you should be subject to expeditious deportation,” DeSantis said. “(...) I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS have begun. The cadence is increasing. We’ve already had a number of flights in the last few days, we’ve had hundreds of illegals (who) have been removed from from here and, you know, the federal government has a process of how they eventually do, and they’ve done it different ways on some of these different flights, but the reality is, this provides an ability to enhance the mission, to increase the number and frequency of deportations.”
The Governor reported that three DHS flights had already departed, the first carrying 100 detainees. When News 6’s Mike Valente asked DHS for further details about the flights, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin replied via email, “Fire up the deportation planes.”
[MORE: Florida lawmakers visit ‘Alligator Alcatraz’]
“There’s probably close to 800,000 illegal aliens that have already been ordered deported in the country,” DeSantis said. “Florida, we have at least 50,000, 75,000 (...) the idea that somehow you need some elaborate process in some of those situations, it’s just not factually true in terms of the law.”
DeSantis at one point referenced how the federal government has sent flights to “hubs,” such as one allegedly in Louisiana, where “you can pull the nationalities” from a plane full of people and deport them to different countries.
Critics have condemned Alligator Alcatraz as cruel and inhumane while DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
DeSantis was joined Friday by Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, Florida AG Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement Executive Director Larry Keefe.
Taking multiple questions from reporters on the conditions at the facility, DeSantis and Guthrie maintained that Alligator Alcatraz meets or exceeds every state or federal standard and lambasted any word to the contrary as a phony narrative.
[MORE: Florida governor defends conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’]
Responding to a journalist who questioned whether they would be allowed to see more of the area while they were there on Friday — specifically, to see what Guthrie called a “full-fledged medical center” that he described to a reporter who questioned whether it existed — DeSantis brought up recent visits already on the books by President Trump and other politicians.
“Here’s the thing. This is not a spectacle, OK?” DeSantis said, speaking from a detention facility with official merchandise. “You don’t get to go into other facilities willy-nilly either. I mean, that’s just the reality of the situation. I think they have a job to do here, I think they’re doing it and I think that they’re doing it well and so we’re going to continue."
Remarks from Ingoglia and Keefe were similar to each other in that they urged the self deportation of any illegal immigrants who may be listening to the news conference.
Although DeSantis is calling for “an aggressive processing and an aggressive deportation schedule“ at Alligator Alcatraz, stating he doesn’t want the facility to be “something where people- illegals are just being stored,” Keefe’s remarks differed slightly.
While addressing illegal immigrants directly, Keefe said that they had a choice between receiving $1,000 and a flight out of the U.S. through the DHS CBP HOME option, or to be kept at a migrant-detention facility such as Alligator Alcatraz for what he implied could be “years or months."
"If you’re thinking is that, ‘Well, it’s not so bad if I get arrested because, you know — and you have seen and we have all lived and seen the last four years of ‘catch and release’ — I’ll go, I’ll get arrested and an immigration judge will bond me out and I’ll be right back in the community with my lawyer for 4 or 5 years of due process of whatever we can throw on the wall,’ thinking there may be some amnesty or something might happen. Well, that’s other news," Keefe said. “There’s been a development within the last two weeks that has significantly cut back bond release from detention. It is my strong recommendation to you that if you do not take up Secretary Noam on the CBP HOME option to return home, that you will be in a place just like this, if not this place, and you will be here for the entire duration of the time that you were exhausting your due process rights. You will not be living freely in our communities while you’re awaiting the due process to take place for years or months.”
The Alligator Alcatraz facility is expected to cost approximately $450 million. Although the state is initially covering the expenses, DeSantis has indicated that reimbursement from the federal government is anticipated.
Addressing the topic of potential federal funding, DeSantis said that the process of Florida being reimbursed is the “same as you would through any FEMA reimbursement.”
After the news conference, Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, criticized the state’s budget priorities.
“Any time a politician tells you we can’t afford something, I think you can just point to the Everglades and say, ‘Actually, we can. You’re just choosing not.’ Because that half a billion dollars can go to teachers’ pay, universal childcare, housing affordability. We obviously have the money,” Eskamani told News 6.
Watch Friday’s news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.