TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is asking firms for information on planning, costs and construction on temporary adult detention facilities.
Although the request doesn’t commit to building facilities yet, it does acknowledge the information would be used to develop costs and a schedule for a possible future competitive solicitation. The request comes less than two months after the state closed Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial state-run detention facility that officials estimated could hold around 3,000 people.
The records don’t specify if suspected undocumented immigrants would be held at the facility, but it does ask for a facility similar to a detention center delivering residential support services under the oversight of the US government to house its detainees on a 24/7 basis, 365 days a year.
Thomas Kennedy, who is an immigration rights advocate at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said he believes the facility will be used to house suspected undocumented immigrants because local and state law enforcement are enforcing national immigration laws. He said he saw the “Request for Information” online and posted it because he felt the state wasn’t being transparent.
“People should know what’s happening,” Kennedy said. “People should know if there’s detention facilities being built near their homes and their communities…People should know where their tax dollars are going and what the government is up too.”
He also said he’s concerned about how much a facility will cost, especially because this doesn’t explain how many facilities the state is trying to build other than “preferably five or more south of the I-4 corridor.”
“This is a business. You know, these companies, again, are making billions of dollars detaining people and from the detention complex.”
WFTV previously reported Alligator Alcatraz cost more than $608 Million, as questions remained over whether the federal government would refund the state for the cost.
Regardless, the state needs space as the State Board of Immigration Enforcement said local and state law enforcement agencies encountered more than 30,000 suspected undocumented immigrants in one year.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which includes the Florida Highway Patrol, had one of every three encounters in the state. Those encounters are dispersed across the state.
WFTV reached out to the department about the request for information and we’re still waiting to hear back.
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