Florida Highway Patrol requests input on new detention facilities

Immigration admin August 6, 2026 0 Comments

Florida Highway Patrol requests input on new detention facilities

The Florida Highway Patrol is seeking input from vendors on the construction of temporary adult-detention facilities across the state.

The request for information — posted by the State of Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on Monday — does not clarify whether the facilities would house immigration detainees or other individuals. It asks for responses to be submitted by Aug. 10.

The Miami Herald reached out to the department, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The governor’s office referred reporters to FHP, and the Herald had not received a response from the other agencies at the time of publication.

The 7-page request defines a facility as “similar to a detention center, comprised of buildings and other structures, where a detention facility contractor delivers secure residential support services under the oversight of the U.S. Government to house its detainees on a 24- hour per day, 7-day per week, 365 day per year basis.”

Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which oversees the Florida Highway Patrol, asks vendors to provide potential sites — preferably five or more locations south of Interstate 4, the highway that cuts through the center of the state, from Daytona Beach to Tampa.

Contractors are encouraged to ensure facilities are built on state-owned land, and asked to advise how to ensure that those built under federal grant funding comply with any future use restrictions on the site.

It asks for guidance on short-term facilities — that can hold approximately 50 detainees, men or women, for up to 48 hours or more, and meet office space requirements for state and federal personnel.

The request follows the recent closure of a controversial state-run immigration detention facility in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by officials. DeSantis invested over $1 billion in the construction of the site, which held federal immigration detainees in an industrial white tent. Detainees reported poor conditions and abuse, which state and federal officials have denied.

After agencies across the state signed agreements to assist federal immigration agents under the program known as 287(g), Florida Highway Patrol has consistently driven immigration arrests.

Data published by the State Board of Immigration Enforcement shows the agency documenting over 9,600 “encounters” since Aug. 1, 2025 — not all of which lead to arrests. The figure is about three times greater than the next highest recording agency, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, called the document “incredibly concerning,” and said that it looks like a plan for immigration detention facilities. She noted that it comes amid the cancellation of Temporary Protection Status for as many of 350,000 Haitian immigrants.

“We just saw the closure of the Everglades detention camp, and you would think that the state of Florida would learn from that mistake,” she said. “And now they want to open up more facilities.”