Governor Ron DeSantis said during a Tuesday press conference he is in talks with law enforcement in Panama City about opening a third immigration detention facility there.
“We're actually in the process of figuring out how we can set up a Panhandle Pokey, and we're going to have that in the panhandle. And so the mission continues,” he said.
Florida made national headlines for opening “Alligator Alcatraz”, a detention center in the middle of the Everglades that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. It was recently barred from accepting new detainees by a judge.
The state has opened a second one, dubbed Deportation Depot, at the Baker Correctional institution outside Jacksonville.
DeSantis during a Tuesday press conference did not give specifics about the potential Panama City facility, or when it would be expected to open.