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Florida’s second immigration detention facility called “Deportation Depot” opens, and Rep. Cory Mills faces off against Miss United States in court.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management confirmed Friday that the new immigration detention facility dubbed “Deportation Depot” by Gov. Ron DeSantis is officially open and receiving detainees.
The governor announced the additional facility in August, saying the facility will have the capacity to hold more than 1,300 detainees, and would be set up with the same services as the “Alligator Alcatraz” facility. He announced at the time that the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson would be used to create the new detention center.
“Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson will now serve as a ‘Deportation Depot’ to detain and process illegal immigrants for removal, building on the success the state has had with Alligator Alcatraz,” DeSantis said last week. “We’ll enforce the law, we’ll hold the line, and we will keep delivering results.”
DeSantis also said that state leaders are in talks with law enforcement in the Panhandle to open another facility.
“We’re actually in the process of figuring out how we can set up a ‘Panhandle Pokey’, and we are going to have that in the Panhandle. So the mission continues,” DeSantis said.
This would make the third detention center after the opening of the “Deportation Depot” near Jacksonville in Baker County.
The governor also said he is confident that the federal government will reimburse the state to cover the millions of taxpayer dollars he spent to get “Alligator Alcatraz” up and running.
“Everything we’re doing on this mission, everything we’re doing is reimbursable from FEMA,” DeSantis said.
The state also has been cleared to continue to use “Alligator Alcatraz” to hold additional detainees after an appellate court blocked an injunction issued by a federal judge.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday blocked a prior ruling by a federal judge to shut down operations at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Florida Rep. Cory Mills spent Friday morning in court for a hearing to determine if a restraining order should be issued against him.
Lindsey Langston, the reigning Miss United States, and Mills’ ex-girlfriend, filed for a restraining order against him, claiming he threatened to release personal nude photos and videos after their relationship ended.
The Columbia County court heard both from Langston and Mills.
Mills described the allegations as a mischaracterization, while Langston described Mills as a scorned lover.
The pair dated for roughly three years until Langston said she discovered Mills was unfaithful in their relationship.
What happened in the months that followed their breakup was at the heart of the hearing.
Langston said that over the course of several months, she received threatening messages from Mills that implied violence and/or retribution against her and any other potential partners.
Langston claimed that Mills also threatened to leak nude images and videos of her after she asked him to stop contacting her multiple times.
“Internally I was reeling, I was so scared, I didn’t want to face any backlash for coming forward,” Langston said on the stand. “But I was scared, and I reached out to several people beforehand to make sure that what I was doing was just. Because I had begged him to leave me alone and he wouldn’t. So, I needed to go to law enforcement. Maybe if he wouldn’t listen to me, he would listen to them.”
Mills also took the stand and commented on his relationship with Langston.
“This is a family I grew to love, and I still love. Her father became a close friend of mine,” he said. “When I was hearing things that could jeopardize her crown, or as you talk about with this morality clause, I wanted to let her know things were being murmured.”
The judge did not issue a ruling on the restraining order during Friday’s hearing.
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Ybeth Bruzual, Holly Gregory, Asher Wildman, Jason Delgado, Spectrum News Staff, Associated Press
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