00:00Tonight, we're also hearing from Governor DeSantis, who has plans for an ICE detention center in North Florida.
00:05Made that announcement while speaking at USF today, and this comes as plans were announced for another facility near the
00:10Everglades.
00:11Fox 13's Jordan Bowens on this one. Of course, joins us in our newsroom. Hi there, Jordan.
00:14I know we know some groups here are pushing back against the plans. What more do you know?
00:18Yeah, Mark, one immigration advocacy group calls the plans dehumanizing and cruel.
00:22On the other hand, DeSantis says these facilities are much needed to help free of space in the jails.
00:27Wednesday, while Governor DeSantis was signing mental health and substance abuse bills at USF,
00:32he spilled plans for the first time about a second proposed ICE detention facility in North Florida.
00:37We'll probably also do something similar up at Camp Blanding, which is where our National Guard headquarters to train there.
00:44We have some capacity there, so Kevin Guthrie, Division of Emergency Management, are working on that.
00:50Camp Blanding is the main training site for the Florida National Guard, located about an hour southwest of Jacksonville.
00:55We can't have every illegal housed in our jails because we actually have non-illegals who need to be housed
01:02there.
01:02Having a second ICE detention center would build on the governor's aggressive immigration enforcement effort.
01:07Immigration advocacy groups have come out strongly against the plans.
01:10Maria Bilbao, the Florida campaign coordinator at the Immigration Advocacy Group American Friends Service Committee,
01:15told the Associated Press, what's happening is very concerning, the level of dehumanization.
01:20Going on to say, it's like a theatricalization of cruelty.
01:23Illegals will come in boats from Haiti, from Cuba, from Bahamas, and I can tell you when we interdict those,
01:30there are sometimes drugs, there are sometimes explosives, there are sometimes firearms.
01:36It's important that we're leading the way on this.
01:37I think it's going to ultimately, you know, be the case that other states start to follow through a little
01:42bit more like Florida is.
01:45The Everglades facility has been approved and construction has already begun.
01:49It's not clear yet if the Camp Blanding site was approved or has been approved,
01:53but if it is, DeSantis says it would be fully funded by the federal government.
01:56Guys?
01:57All right, Jordan Bowen, thank you.
