Driving east on Florida State Road 16 in Starke, drivers come across a paradox. On the right stands a military training center for the National Guard. On the left is a sea of brightly colored cars and field tents.
Crowds of people line the street holding signs, waving flags and shouting, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Over 250 people gathered in the beating sun July 19 to protest what could become Florida’s next immigration detention center. Protesters gathered across a nearly mile-long stretch across the road from Camp Blanding Joint Training Center in a heat index near 105 degrees.
“A prison without due process is a concentration camp,” some protesters’ signs read. “No ICEholes,” read others.
Monica Martinez, a 25-year-old Jacksonville resident, is a member of Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance, one of the event’s main organizers. It took a month to plan, and around 15 organizations participated in solidarity, she said.
In front of Camp Blanding’s main entrance, multiple field tents were set up for the protest. Volunteers wore neon vests as they distributed water bottles, popsicles, cooling towels, Gatorade and lollipops to attendees.
Martinez said her organization’s main goal was to stand in solidarity with immigrants.
“Legal status should not be a gateway to mistreating people and to put them in inhumane conditions,” Martinez said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis hailed Florida as the nation’s lead in immigration enforcement. After partnering with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement in January through the 287(g) program, any trained Florida law enforcement officer can detain and interrogate individuals about their immigration status.
As of May, Florida has more law enforcement officers acting as ICE agents than any other state in the country.
Florida turned the Dade-Collier training airport into the state’s first immigration detention center in June, officially named “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The center, which took days to complete, began accepting detainees July 2. It’s expected to hold about 3,000 people and has a yearly operating price tag of $450 million.
Martinez said Saturday’s protest wasn’t just about Camp Blanding’s potential but about Florida’s intense push toward immigration enforcement.
“Our job is to fight back against these laws, against these establishments, and to show that we're not going to allow these things to happen in our city, in our state or in our country without a fight,” she said.
Rebecca Putman, a 36-year-old Gainesville resident, is a pastor of 10 years at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Sitting in a lawn chair, she adjusted the sleeves of her long-sleeve shirt. Her cassock and clerical collar peeked out from underneath.
Westminster Presbyterian Church is a member of Gainesville's Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Putman said, a faith-based organization created in 2010 in opposition to a controversial Arizona immigration bill.
Putman said she came to Camp Blanding because “Jesus tells us to love our neighbors.”
American Christians generally supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election, with 62% of Christian voters attending church at least once or twice a month supporting him.
Among Christians who go to church less often, 55% said they’d vote for Trump, according to a Pew Research Study. Most white Christian voters said they’d vote for Trump over Biden.
Putnam squinted her aquamarine eyes at the sun, holding back tears. She clutched the hand-carved Celtic cross around her neck, her fingernails tapping its wooden edges.
She wishes she could tell right-leaning Christians that “Jesus was pretty clear,” she said.
“When the one true King is separating the righteous from the unrighteous, one of the things that the righteous did was welcome the stranger,” Putnam said. “For me, I welcome the stranger in Jesus’ name.”
Marina Briseno, a 23-year-old Gainesville resident, said she’s been “anti-ICE” after learning about the agency in 2018. Studded in a bright red beret, Briseno proudly waved a tall Mexican flag, its folds cracking in the wind.
Her great-grandfather immigrated on a donkey to the United States from Mexico, she said, noting her grandfather would be “proud” to know she protested.
Briseno said she finds it “disgusting” there could be an immigration detention center just 30 minutes from her home.
“It feels like a duty to protest it,” Briseno said. “What they misunderstand is that this is not about illegal immigration whatsoever. They are detaining people who were born here. They are not going for criminals. ICE is not doing their job.”
There are about 57,000 migrants in immigration detention as of July 13. Of those, about 72% have no criminal conviction.
Multiple law enforcement vehicles parked at each of Camp Blanding’s entrances and at each side of the protest’s stretch, observing the crowds. Uniformed service members observed from the inside of the gate.
Sarah Price, a 41-year-old Jacksonville resident, held a sign of a painted monarch butterfly, its words reading, “Migration is a part of life, I stand with immigrants.”
Price attended the protest with her daughter, 21-year-old Annabelle Peirpoint, who she hopes learned valuable lessons from the event, she said.
“Our voice is what we have,” Price said. “Our community is what we have, and we have to be here for each other.”
Peirpoint held a sign reading, "Dignity, not detention.” She balanced on the tips of her battered sneakers, holding her sign as high as possible.
While younger generations have more egalitarian perspectives, young adults are also more fatalistic than older generations, meaning they feel a lack of agency or control over their lives, according to a 2024 study by the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans.
Many attributed the fatalistic outlook to growing income inequality, rising living costs, the current state of politics or the future of climate change.
As a Generation Z voter, Peirpoint said it’s a privilege to disconnect from politics.
“We have more in common with an immigrant, working-class citizen than we do with anybody in office,” Peirpoint said. “They [citizens] have to speak for the people that can’t.”
Sarah Homan, a 37-year-old Gainesville resident, said she felt Florida immigration detention centers are a “huge stunt built on cruelty.”
Early reports of migrant experiences in Alligator Alcatraz detail concerning conditions regarding water, temperatures and hygiene, according to the Miami Herald.
Standing out in the heat was an accurate representation of what migrants in detention centers experience, Homan said.
Paramedics arrived at the scene toward the end of the protest to tend to people experiencing heat exhaustion. First aid volunteers said at least two people needed medical attention.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’s holding off on converting Camp Blanding into a detention center in a press conference July 16, citing he wanted to wait for Alligator Alcatraz to reach capacity.
Homan doesn’t believe the state is being transparent about pausing construction, she said, citing DeSantis wants to “cram as many as he can.”
If Camp Blanding were to shift to a detention center, it could hold about 2,000 migrants, DeSantis said, but could still be created in a matter of weeks once it’s greenlit.
Contact Sara-James Ranta at sranta@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sarajamesranta.
Sara-James Ranta is a journalism senior, minoring in sociology of social justice and policy. She previously served as Metro's K-12 education reporter. In her free time, SJ is watching a new show, listening to EDM or discussing Star Wars.
