CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — The state is making its first moves to make a proposed immigrant detention center at Camp Blanding a reality.
Governor Ron DeSantis has repeatedly teased an immigrant detention center will be built at Camp Blanding once Alligator Alcatraz reaches capacity.
“I think Blanding would have the capacity to do a couple thousand. We initially were planning on just kind of opening that right away,” said DeSantis last Friday.
Now, with expansions of the Everglades detention center on pause due to a federal judge’s ruling this week, the state appears to be moving forward with plans at Camp Blanding.
A new $39,000 state contract for a weather monitoring system and two lightning sirens was posted to a state website this week.
According to the contract description, the equipment will go to the “North Detention Facility”.
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State Representative Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) criticized the growing cost of the state’s immigration enforcement efforts.
“Meanwhile, we have parents that have to choose between whether or not they take their children to the hospital or put food on the table and Ron DeSantis’ campaign donors are like raking in money,” said Nixon.
But the Governor has repeatedly claimed state money spent on the facilities will be reimbursed by the federal government.
“This is money that was actually going to paying for them to be in hotels in Manhattan. So, I think most people would say it’s better for this than for that,” said DeSantis.
Action News Jax has been asking for information about the planned Camp Blanding detention center for more than a month, but our inquiries have largely yielded no information.
Requests submitted in early July seeking any request for proposals and a list of companies placing bids to work on the facility returned no documents when the Division of Emergency Management finally responded on July 30th.
Nixon argued it raises questions about how the contracts are being awarded.
“They need to do their jobs and they need to be transparent in regards to who is getting the hundreds of millions of dollars that taxpayers are dishing out,” said Nixon.
Action News Jax reached out to the Division of Emergency Management earlier this week asking to confirm whether plans at Camp Blanding are moving forward.
We still have not heard back.
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