Florida's State-Run Immigration Detention Centers Omit Hundreds of Detainees from Federal Tracking

The day after a federal judge temporarily blocked an order to wind down operations at Alligator Alcatraz earlier this month, Florida opened its second state-run immigration detention center, dubbed “Deportation Depot.” Although the Sunshine State’s second facility isn’t likely to run into the same environmental legal challenges that Alligator Alcatraz has, it may face the same questions regarding facility management and constitutional rights violations. 

Since July 2010, federal immigration detainees in custody for more than 48 hours have been put into the Online Detainee Locator System, or the ODLS database, which family members, legal representatives, and members of the public have used to ascertain the detainees’ whereabouts.  However, the system was designed to track detainees held by either Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection, the agencies that have historically detained undocumented immigrants. But the unprecedented development of state-run immigration detention centers such as Deportation Depot and Alligator Alcatraz has led to detainees at these locations frequently not showing up in the ODLS. 

As of September 10, Deportation Depot, located at the previously closed Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, housed 248 immigrant detainees, according to USA Today. However, none of these detainees were listed in the ODLS. Similarly, at the end of August—weeks after opening—approximately 800 of over 1,800 Alligator Alcatraz detainees were not listed in ODLS, and an additional 450 were found listed, but were given no location with instructions to “Call ICE for details.” 

Not knowing where an immigrant detainee is located puts the individual, their family, and their attorney in limbo, unable to effectively coordinate visitation or communication. It may also violate detainees’ rights. 

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on August 22 against the operators of Alligator Alcatraz, plaintiffs allege, in part, that failing to enter location information into the ODLS violates a detainee’s First and Fifth Amendment rights “regarding…access to attorneys, access to immigration courts, and conditions of confinement.” When detainees are not in or disappear from the ODLS, the complaint argues, “lawyers often cannot find their clients, and families cannot locate their loved ones inside ICE’s vast detention system.” The problem, the complaint continues, is “exacerbated by frequent transfers between facilities.” The same can be said of Deportation Depot’s untracked detainees. 

This problem is bound to get worse as both of Florida’s state-run immigration detention centers continue to receive more detainees. Deportation Depot is projected to house up to 1,300 immigrants. And although Alligator Alcatraz remains embroiled in legal challenges, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to continue sending detainees to the facility after a preliminary injunction on operations was lifted earlier this month. The facility can hold up to 3,000 detainees—and may eventually be expanded to hold 5,000. 

Meanwhile, states across the country are copying Florida’s blueprint and have been resurrecting or repurposing empty prisons to create their own state-run immigration detention centers. Contracting with the Department of Homeland Security—and funded by a $45 billion budget—these facilities are meant to increase detention capacity to over 107,000 beds, nearly doubling capacity by the end of Trump’s first year in office, reports The Washington Post.

Should individuals’ detention location at one of these state-run facilities continue to be omitted from the ODLS or any other comparable system, detainees will get lost in the U.S. immigration system and will be made invisible to the public. And, their constitutional rights will continue to be violated. 

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