JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis’ plan for a new migrant detention facility in Northeast Florida may take a little longer than expected.
In a visit to Alligator Alcatraz, the state’s emergency management leaders said that construction could begin on the Camp Blanding site as soon as this week.
But in a Monday afternoon press conference, the governor shared that the state emergency management division is still in the process of selecting construction crews for the site.
“All these projects are competitively bid, so they got to score the projects as they come in...or the vendors. So, eventually I think vendors will be selected and then at that point they’d be able to do it,” DeSantis said.
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The opening of a migrant detention facility in Clay County’s Camp Blanding would come just weeks after the opening of the Everglades’ Alligator Alcatraz, and mark the state’s second migrant detention facility.
Governor DeSantis, though, says he wants to be sure that another facility is needed.
“What we want to know is okay, what’s the demand signal for it, we’re happy to stand it up, but we want to make sure that it’s being used to effectuate the removal of illegal aliens from the country,” he said.
The governor is still holding to his plan that the federal government will reimburse the state for the project.
There is no clear timeline on when construction could begin on the facility at Camp Blanding.
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