The Florida Republican Party has removed from its website a line of merchandise touting the state's second immigration detention center known as "Deportation Depot."
Shortly after the Baker County facility announced last week, the merchandise was listed for sale. A posting on X promoted "The Deportation Depot" and included an ad for items that sported a logo similar to Home Depot's signature orange branding.
The temporary immigration facility, at the Baker Correctional Institution is near a Lake City Airport, which Gov. Ron DeSantis's office says is beneficial for quick deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.
A similar facility in the Everglades called "Alligator Alcatraz" has been challenged in court by conservationists, the Miccosukee Tribe others due to its location inside the Big Cypress National Preserve and proximity to several tribe villages and sacred areas. Merchandise promoting that location remains for sale at the GOP website.
"The Deportation Depot" issue surfaced Saturday after a story in the Miami Herald reported that a line of deportation-themed shirts, hats and other knickknacks for sale on the Florida GOP website bore a logo similar to Home Depot's.
A Home Depot Inc. spokesman that the company had not approved the party to use the similar branding or logo and that it reached out to state GOP officials.
The Herald reported the merchandise was removed a few hours later, after the newspaper story published.
There have been reports of federal agents arresting people from Home Depot parking lots in other parts of the country during its enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.
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