The first deportation flights out of a temporary detention center in the Florida Everglades began this week, with hundreds of people departing the state — including some who were eventually sent out of the country, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Friday. About 100 people previously detained at the Florida center “have fully been deported,” DeSantis said, without specifying where they were sent. The Department of Homeland Security is organizing the departures, he said, adding that two or three “removal flights” have left Florida so far with plans to continue them.

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Some of the flights went to a federal immigration site in Louisiana first then “to another place,” DeSantis said.

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“There’s an aggressive … deportation schedule,” DeSantis said. “That’s what you’re seeing is starting to occur here down at Alligator Alcatraz.”

Garrett Ripa, the Miami field director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said those flown out of the country were “illegally present in the state of Florida.” The officials spoke from the Florida detention center, with the protected Everglades wetlands as a backdrop.

DeSantis defended the hastily built facility from criticism that it is unsafe for detainees and will harm the environment. The detention camp is in the Big Cypress National Preserve and next to Everglades National Park.

DeSantis said the facility can hold 2,000 people but can be expanded “as needed.” An estimated 750 to 900 detainees are being held there now.

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The detention center was constructed near an infrequently used airstrip that has been at the site for 50 years. DeSantis said its location is “sensible” and allows for detainees to quickly be loaded onto deportation flights.

“You don’t have to drive them an hour to an airport. You go a couple thousand feet, and they can be on a plane and out of here,” he said. “So I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS, have begun. The cadence is increasing. We’ve already had a number of flights in the last few days.”

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The American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant advocates, along with four detainees, filed a lawsuit this month claiming harsh and unsafe conditions at the facility. Environmentalists have also sued.

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Kevin Guthrie, the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said at the news conference that claims by detainees, their families and attorneys that medical treatment is lacking at the facility “are false.”