Gabrielle Russon
The first deportation flights out of Alligator Alcatraz have begun, with about 100 detainees being removed from the country in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, Florida officials said.
“The cadence is increasing. We’ve already had a number of flights in the last few days,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference giving the latest updates from the controversial detention center.
Meanwhile, Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie insisted that the Everglades detention center can withstand hurricane-force winds up to Category 2 and said there is a hurricane contingency plan in place.
“I know that I’ve taken a little bit of heat in the media that the EM guy is not taking care of hurricane season. That is absolutely, unequivocally false,” Guthrie said while standing next to DeSantis. “I promise you that the hurricane guys have got the hurricane stuff covered.”
DeSantis has regularly touted Florida as being a leader to help President Donald Trump fulfill his agenda of mass deportations.
Starting Monday, Alligator Alcatraz will have the first set of onsite legal representation for detainees, which officials said will help speed up the deportation process.
“The space that we have, we can do those meetings all day long, 24/7, 365 (days),” Guthrie said.
Florida leaders said they expect the number of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz to ramp up. The facility can currently hold up to 2,000 detainees, but they expect it to eventually have the capacity to hold up to 4,000 people.
“We’re here today to say this was never intended to be something where people are just held and we just kind of twiddle our thumbs. The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens,” DeSantis said.
“One of the reasons why this was a sensible spot is because you have this runway that’s right here. You don’t have to drive them an hour to an airport. You go a couple thousand feet, and they can be on a plane and out of here.”
Democrats and critics have been outspoken regarding their rage over Alligator Alcatraz, voicing concerns about the environmental impact of building the facility in the Everglades and the more than estimated $450 million annual price tag to run it. Others say it’s an inhumane method of detaining people, including, in one case, a teenager.
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia defended the use of taxpayer money. “I don’t want to hear anyone from the Left start talking about cost, because this wouldn’t be here if we wouldn’t have a de facto open border over the last four years under the previous administration … under Joe Biden.”
Guthrie defended the state removing contracts from its website, which raised transparency questions.
“What our staff ended up doing was we actually put proprietary information on the website — we have competitive contracts,” Guthrie said. “So what happened was our team put the actual detailed line item, PO that then now every other competitive contractor can see what their rate is. So we took that down. We’ve replaced it with summary sheets on the actual amount that they’ve been given.”
