A line of merchandise sold by the Florida Republican Party with branding for the state's newest immigration deportation facility — Deportation Depot — has been removed from the party's website.
Shortly after the new facility was announced, the merchandise was listed for sale at the state GOP party's website. A posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, promoted the Deportation Depot and included an ad for items that sported a logo similar to Home Depot signature orange branding.
The Deportation Depot at the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, is to serve as a temporary immigration detention center to process and deport individuals back to their countries of origin. The location is near a Lake City Airport, which the governor says is beneficial for quick deportations, according to the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis.
A similar facility called Alligator Alcatraz is in eastern Collier County and has been an issue of contention for conservationists, Indigenous Americans and others due to the location inside the Big Cypress National Preserve and its proximity to several Miccosukee villages and sacred areas. Merchandise promoting that location remains for sale at the GOP website.
The Deportation Depot issue surfaced Saturday after a story in the Miami Herald reported that a line of deportation-themed shirts, hats and other knick-knacks for sale on its website bore a logo similar to The Home Depot.
A Home Depot spokesman that the company had not approved the party to use its branding or logo and that they had reached out to state GOP officials.
The Herald report said that the $15-28 merch was removed a few hours later, after the newspaper's story published.
There have been instances where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have grabbed people from The Home Depot parking lots in other parts of the country during the agency's apprehension of people they say are in the United States illegally.
For example, U.S. border patrol agents made more arrests in Los Angeles and the surrounding area on Friday, arresting a woman selling food outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles.
The detentions come days after agents jumped out of the back of a truck and made arrests at a Home Depot as part of a raid the agency official called “Operation Trojan Horse.”
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you. The Associated Press contributed to this report.