Overview

• The center was built in eight days under a Florida emergency order with FEMA funds and has an initial capacity of 3,000 beds set to expand to 5,000 by early July.
• The first group of migrants arrived Wednesday night, transported by buses to begin expedited processing for deportation under the 287(g) program.
• President Donald Trump toured the site with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary Kristi Noem, praising its security model and endorsing the idea of Florida National Guard members serving as immigration judges.
• Secretary Noem repeated an unverified claim that a detainee deemed a cannibal began eating himself on a deportation flight, a story not corroborated by independent sources.
• Environmental groups and Native American tribes have filed lawsuits challenging the camp’s encroachment on protected swampland and its potential harm to the Everglades ecosystem.