{"id":137401,"date":"2026-01-30T08:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137401\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T08:37:15","slug":"detainees-pepper-sprayed-at-florida-immigration-detention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/137401\/","title":{"rendered":"Detainees pepper-sprayed at Florida immigration detention center"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Detainees have been pepper-sprayed on at least two occasions at a Florida immigration detention center dubbed \u201c Deportation Depot<\/a> \u201d since it opened last September.<\/p>\n

The Florida Division of Emergency Management confirmed Thursday that the most recent incident at the former Baker Correctional Institution in northeast Florida occurred on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral detainees refused orders to return to their bunks and began advancing on staff,\u201d officials said in a statement. \u201cOne detainee became violent, striking an officer, so chemical agents were released to restore safety to detainees and guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confrontation came nearly two months after an Oct. 29 incident, when detainees attempted to barricade themselves inside their housing unit while inciting violence and causing significant damage, officials said. Guards eventually used pepper spray to regain control. No injuries were reported, and everyone involved was medically cleared in an abundance of caution, officials said.<\/p>\n

The northeast Florida facility is the second immigration detention center opened by the state of Florida, following \u201c Alligator Alcatraz<\/a> \u201d in the Florida Everglades earlier last summer. The state is awaiting approval from federal officials to open a third immigration detention center in the Florida Panhandle and is also looking into a potential fourth detention facility in South Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> announced earlier this month.<\/p>\n

DeSantis has said that there had been 10,000 arrests of people in the U.S. illegally in Florida during the past year through a state initiative with federal law enforcement, and that local law enforcement had made an additional 10,000 arrests for a total of 20,000 arrests. Under the state initiative, 63% of those arrested had a criminal arrest or conviction, DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

Florida has led other states in constructing facilities to support President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, with DeSantis saying the Trump administration needs the additional capacity to hold and deport more immigrants. The Trump administration has trumpeted the Republican governors\u2019 efforts<\/a> to expand their immigration detention capacity, calling Florida\u2019s partnership a model<\/a> for other state-run holding facilities. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for detainees at the Everglades facility have called the conditions deplorable, writing in court documents that rainwater floods their tents and officers go cell-to-cell pressuring detainees to sign voluntary removal orders before they\u2019re allowed to consult their attorneys.<\/p>\n

Three federal lawsuits in Florida have challenged practices at the Everglades facility. <\/p>\n

In one, detainees asked for the facility to be closed since immigration is a federal issue and agencies and private contractors hired by the state lack authority to operate it under federal law. That lawsuit ended this month after the immigrant detainee who filed the case agreed to be deported.<\/p>\n

In a second lawsuit, detainees were seeking a ruling that would ensure that they have access to confidential communications<\/a> with their attorneys.<\/p>\n

In the third lawsuit, a federal judge in Miami last summer ordered the Everglades facility<\/a> to wind down operations over two months because officials had failed to do a review of the detention center\u2019s environmental impact. But an appellate court panel put that decision on hold for the time being, allowing the facility to stay open. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Detainees have been pepper-sprayed on at least two occasions at a Florida immigration detention center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[409,1882,28,30,29,477,1837,1841,4137,99,1840,412,62424,1110,39821],"class_list":["post-137401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-donald-trump","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-general-news","tag-immigrant-detention","tag-immigration","tag-lawsuits","tag-politics","tag-prisons","tag-ron-desantis","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}