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Baker County Detention Facility — North Florida 'Deportation Depot'

Baker, FL FIPS 12003
1,300+
Bed capacity
Operator: GEO Group (joint venture management) / Baker County

Overview

The Baker County Detention Facility, located at the former Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, opened July 1, 2025 / announced operational August 2025, with capacity to hold over 1,300 detainees. GEO Group announced a joint-venture agreement in October 2025 to provide management services at what it calls the North Florida Detention Facility. As of DeSantis’s June 25, 2026 announcement closing “Alligator Alcatraz,” Deportation Depot remains open and is explicitly the named successor capacity — DeSantis said Alligator Alcatraz helped deport 21,000 people while Deportation Depot, which has processed roughly 10,000-11,000 on its own count, “will remain open.”

Important distinction: This is a separate facility from the long-running Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny (the county jail, operating under ICE IGSA #DROIGSA-09-0038 since 2008, run by Sheriff Scotty Rhoden’s office) — both are in Baker County and both hold ICE detainees, but they are different buildings with different operators and different histories. The state-run Deportation Depot is at the former Baker Correctional Institution site in Sanderson; the county jail is in Macclenny. National coverage sometimes conflates the two under the “Baker County” name. See the Macclenny facility’s own long-running ACLU litigation history below — treat it as a related but distinct signal.

Key Details

  • Opened: July 1, 2025 (construction-to-open in days, per reporting); operational status confirmed August/September 2025
  • Capacity: 1,300+ beds
  • Location: Former Baker Correctional Institution, Sanderson, FL (~40 miles west of Jacksonville)
  • Management: GEO Group (joint venture, announced October 2025)
  • Throughput: 93 deportation flights / ~2,926 deportations reported as of Jan 5, 2026 (DeSantis update); ~10,000 processed cumulatively by June 2026
  • Post-Alligator-Alcatraz role: Named explicitly by DeSantis as the facility that “remains open” after Alligator Alcatraz’s June 25, 2026 closure — i.e., the state’s detention-capacity center of gravity shifts entirely to Baker County once the Everglades site closes
  • Funding: Covered in part by a $608M FEMA grant awarded to Florida (Oct 2025) for both Alligator Alcatraz and Deportation Depot; a federal Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) review hold froze disbursement Dec 2025–March 2026 (FEMA denied a $30M request Dec 10, 2025 over incomplete review) until the Trump administration lifted the EHP hold March 13, 2026, allowing Florida to bill up to $249/detainee/night without completing the review. The EHP review remains contested in ongoing NEPA litigation (Friends of the Everglades, Earthjustice, Miccosukee Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity) — see bradford-county-douglas-building and the “NEPA wins don’t travel” pattern; this funding fight is about Alligator Alcatraz/Everglades siting specifically and its resolution doesn’t automatically extend to Baker.

Community Response

Florida residents have organized protests against the facility, with the Independent Florida Alligator covering opposition under the “Deportation Depot” framing (~50 protesters, Jan 2026, organized by Party for Socialism & Liberation, Baker Interfaith Friends, Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance, Florida Immigrant Coalition).

ACLU Concerns

The ACLU of Florida previously filed a CRCL complaint regarding conditions at the Baker County Detention Center (Macclenny, the county jail — see distinction above), documenting systemic concerns predating the Deportation Depot’s 2025 opening. That litigation and complaint history is tracked as a separate facility signal; see the Macclenny IGSA jail’s own record.

Sources

Edit Report issue County profile
Last updated: Aug 19, 2026