Florida is getting ready for the construction of multiple temporary detention centers throughout the state, including five south of Interstate 4.
In preparation, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has issued a formal Request for Information on behalf of the Florida Highway Patrol.
The RFI does not explicitly state that the "temporary detention centers" are for immigrants detained for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But the FHP has taken the lead in Florida in assisting ICE.
The RFI was posted Monday on the platform Florida uses to solicit contractors. The deadline to reply is Monday of next week.
It paints a picture of what the state is planning: multiple contractor-run detention centers throughout Florida, each holding up to 50 adults "under the oversight of the U.S. Government."
That includes five or more centers south of Interstate 4.
The state wants information on everything from the best locations and building materials to operational support and federal contracting.
The governor's press office referred questions about these plans to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The agency had not yet responded to a request for comment as of late Thursday afternoon.
'No clarity' on funding
"This is basically a call to build for-profit detention facilities with tax payer money to detain immigrants," said State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, in an Instagram post Thursday. "I'm sure this is them prepared to detain immigrants who have lost TPS status."
Until recently, about 350,000 Haitian immigrants had been authorized to live and work in the U.S. legally under Temporary Protected Status, because of life-threatening conditions in Haiti. But following a Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration removed those protections last month.
The RFI asks contractors to help estimate the overall cost of the detention centers.
"I have no clarity or understanding or insight that any of this will be reimbursed," Eskamani said in an interview.
"[A]ny type of detention of immigrants is something that we oppose," said Ericka Gómez-Tejeda, a coordinator with the Immigrants Are Welcome Here coalition in Orange County. Her coalition has opposed any new detention facility in the county.
But she is careful not to say that these detention centers proposed by the FHP are for immigrants, because she doesn't know. She wants Florida to be transparent about what it's doing.
"We really need to understand or have them explain what exactly their intentions are," Gómez-Tejeda said. "You know, the state has a terrible track record. Alcatraz was an absolute disaster on human rights, was a disaster for the environment.
"We spent millions of dollars that we didn't need to spend, never got reimbursed for it from the federal level."
Gómez-Tejeda was referring to a large detention center using tents at an airstrip in the Everglades that Florida's political leaders nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz." The controversial detention center closed in June, less than a year after opening.
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