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DHS begins flying migrants out of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ DeSantis announces

Story by Victor Nava
• 9h • 2 min read

The Trump administration has commenced deportation flights for illegal migrants being held in Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday. “I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by [the Department of Homeland Security] have begun,” DeSantis said during a press conference in South Florida.
The Sunshine State governor indicated that about 100 migrants were deported directly from the swampland facility to unspecified countries.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Homeland Security has started flying migrants out of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility. CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA/Shutterstock

Hundreds more were flown to federal deportation facilities in other states, DeSantis added.
“Fire up the deportation planes!” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, when asked for details about the deportation flights.

The detention center, built in eight days on 30-square-miles of land in the Florida Everglades, opened earlier this month after DeSantis used his emergency powers to order its construction.
The property, outfitted with tent structures to house the illegal migrants, is on the site of an old airport.

“We’ve already had a number of flights, in the last few days, we’ve had hundreds of illegals [that] have been removed from here,” DeSantis said. CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA/Shutterstock

An aerial view shows the “Alligator Alcatraz” ICE detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida. REUTERS

Alligator Alcatraz has the capacity for 2,000 detainees but will eventually hold 4,000, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
“The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens, and that is the goal,” DeSantis said.

“And 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,” the governor continued.
DeSantis noted that the Alligator Alcatraz airport is able to “accept commercial-sized aircraft and conduct both day and nighttime operations.”

DHS begins flying migrants out of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ DeSantis announces