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Posted on Tue, Aug. 22, 2006

DANIA BEACH
Border Patrol lockup sought
A developer wants to build a facility near both the airport and the water where undocumented aliens could be processed. The federal government would lease the property.
BY JENNIFER LEBOVICH
jlebovich@MiamiHerald.com

Dania Beach city commissioners will vote today on preliminary plans to build a U.S. Border Patrol facility east of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The 30,000-square-foot facility, which would be built by a Michigan-based developer called WSSA Florida and leased to the federal government, would include holding cells, meeting and interrogation rooms. It would replace the Border Patrol facility at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines, officials said.

4.3-ACRE SITE

The facility is proposed for a 4.3-acre tract on the east side of Northeast Seventh Avenue between Taylor Road and Eller Drive.

The location would be ideal because it provides easy access to the airport and would give the agency ''a presence closer to the water,'' said Dan Geoghegan, assistant chief of the Miami Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.

The administrative offices in the Pembroke Pines building would move elsewhere in the Pines, Geoghegan said.

''When Border Patrol agents make an arrest, they need to process the aliens,'' Geoghegan said. ``That's what will occur in the facility.''

WAY-STATION TO KROME

The migrants would then be taken to the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade, Geoghegan said.

Laurence Leeds, Dania Beach's community development director, said the city was told that no one would be detained at the facility for more than 20 hours.

A second building would be used as a kennel and for storage.

City commissioners discussed the facility at a meeting two weeks ago, but held off on voting because they had some unanswered questions.

TAXING QUESTION

Among commissioners' concerns: how the city would ensure that people would not be held at the facility for more than 20 hours; and keeping the property on the city's tax rolls even though it would be used by the federal government.

''I'm worried . . . about the fact that later the facility could be bought by the government and become a tax-exempt facility in our city,'' said Commissioner John Bertino.

NUMBER OF DETAINEES

Bertino said he was also concerned about the number of people who would be detained at the facility.

The proposal submitted to the city calls for 3,300 square feet of holding cells, 2,200 square feet of processing areas and a 260-square-foot armory.

Opening the facility could bring jobs to the city, and it would be in an industrial area near the end of the airport runways, said Commissioner Anne Castro.

''The number of holding cells is limited. It won't be a Krome,'' Castro said. ``I think it's good economic development for us.''

Commissioners will discuss the proposed facility tonight starting at 7 at City Hall, 100 W. Dania Beach Blvd.