SANDERSON, Fla. — Civil rights groups are threatening legal action against Florida officials and private contractors over allegations of life-threatening conditions, medical neglect and constitutional violations at Baker Correctional Institution, an immigration detention facility known as the “Deportation Depot.” On Oct. 8, the groups sent a demand letter to officials detailing the conditions under which immigrants are being held at the detention center.
The demand letter was submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, Americans for Immigrant Justice and Southern Poverty Law Center and sent to Florida officials and private contractors working at the facility.
In the letter, the ACLU of Florida and its allied organizations accused the Florida Department of Emergency Management, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, GEO Group and other contracting entities of subjecting about 1,200 immigrants in civil detention to the denial of necessary medical care, deprivation of edible food and clean water, exposure to life-threatening heat and mold, psychological and physical abuse, and denial of access to legal counsel.
“Florida has no business running immigration detention facilities,” Amy Godshall, immigrants’ rights staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida, said. “In the state’s last attempt, it created a torturous facility that harmed thousands of people and families, endangered the Florida Everglades, yielded several lawsuits, and cost Florida taxpayers over a billion dollars. The conditions at BCI are just as dangerous, and so is the harm it’s inflicting upon thousands of people. It must be shut down now.”
The facility, formerly an abandoned state prison, was converted into an immigration detention center and reopened last fall. It is operated by many of the same contractors and agencies that ran the South Florida Detention Facility, also known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“Alligator Alcatraz,” which opened in July 2025, was an immigration detention camp built in the Florida Everglades that was shut down in June 2026 after federal inspections confirmed severe abuse, extreme heat and neglect — conditions similar to those alleged at Baker Correctional Institution.
“The abuses at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ did not end when the facility shuttered —instead, they are proliferating at the Baker Correctional Institution, where people detained have experienced life-threatening conditions and physical violence from guards,” Marisol Dominguez-Ruiz, staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said. “Once again, ICE is violating federal law and its own standards. It’s time for the facility to be shut down for good.”
Interviews with current and former detainees, their families and attorneys revealed widespread and dangerous conditions at the facility. According to the letter, most of the people interviewed had either experienced the conditions themselves or witnessed others being subjected to them firsthand.
The letter also accuses the facility of denying detained immigrants their constitutional right to legal counsel, prolonging their detention.
“Every person has a right to be treated with basic dignity, no matter their immigration status,” A.J. Hernandez, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said. “At BCI, officials and contractors have chosen to ignore people’s medical needs and subject them to degrading and life-threatening conditions. The harm and abuse this facility is inflicting won’t end when people are released. Everyone detained at BCI is being subjected to torture: intentionally deprived of sleep, starved and forced to drink putrid water. They will carry that harm for the rest of their lives.”
Based on the firsthand accounts, the civil rights groups contend that the facility has failed to comply with the U.S. Constitution and ICE’s 2026 National Detention Standards. The detention center’s alleged failure to comply with national detention standards and federal law exposes federal and Florida officials and contractors to potential lawsuits over the unconstitutional harm they are accused of inflicting on people held at the facility.
“Due process does not stop at the prison gate,” Paul R. Chavez, director of litigation and advocacy at Americans for Immigrant Justice, said. “ICE’s own standards require clean drinking water, adequate food, medical care, and confidential access to an attorney. Yet the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General reported in September that ICE records listed Baker Correctional Institution’s contractually obligated standards as ‘N/A,’ or not applicable.”
Chavez went on to say, “This failure to identify the governing standards raises serious concerns about oversight and accountability. Immigration detention cannot be used to punish people or pressure them to abandon their legal rights. Every agency and contractor responsible for the Baker Correctional Institution must answer for these abuses.”
Chavez concluded with a direct demand for the “… immediate protection for the people detained at Baker Correctional Institution, and an end to the facility’s use for immigration detention.”
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