TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ administration has already signed contracts to pay a minimum of $245 million to arrange and run the brand new immigration detention center within the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” in accordance with a public database.
The quantity — to be fronted by Florida taxpayers — is according to the $450 million a year officers have estimated the ability will price.
It is also a reminder of the general public funding that DeSantis’ Republican administration is spending to assist perform President Donald Trump ‘s mass deportation agenda.
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Employees set up an indication studying “Alligator Alcatraz” on the entrance to a brand new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition facility, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Picture/Rebecca Blackwell) -
Work progressed on a brand new migrant detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” at Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition facility within the Florida Everglades, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Picture/Rebecca Blackwell) -
FILE – Trailers sit parked in traces as work progresses on a migrant detention heart at Dade-Collier Coaching and Transition facility within the Florida Everglades, July 4, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Picture/Rebecca Blackwell, file)
Human rights advocates, religion leaders and environmentalists have condemned the detention heart. So has Mark Morgan, a former performing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout Trump’s first time period. Morgan wrote an opinion piece printed by Fox Information criticizing the ability as “constructed for headlines” and “ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption.”
Right here’s a glance by the numbers.
Greater than $245 million allotted thus far
A state database of presidency contracts exhibits that since Florida officers introduced plans for the ability on June 19, the Govt Workplace of the Governor has awarded a minimum of two dozen contracts totaling greater than $245 million in taxpayer funds to construct and handle the ability. It rose in a matter of days from a county-owned airstrip surrounded by swampland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami.
All of the contracts have been awarded below an govt order declaring an unlawful immigration emergency the governor first enacted in 2023 and which he has renewed since then. The order grants the state sweeping authority to droop “any statute, rule or order” seen as slowing the response to the emergency, together with necessities to competitively bid public contracts.
State officers say a minimum of a number of the price can be lined by the Federal Emergency Administration Company, which is greatest recognized for responding to hurricanes and different pure disasters. However in court docket paperwork filed earlier this month, attorneys for the Division of Homeland Safety acknowledged that the federal authorities had but to reimburse Florida for any of the prices. The division made clear that “Florida is establishing and working the ability utilizing state funds on state lands below state emergency authority.”
The most important contract totals $78.5 million
The only largest state contract associated to the ability is a $78.5 million take care of Crucial Response Methods, a Jacksonville-based consulting agency. The duties lined embody hiring a warden, camp managers, corrections officers and IT employees.
Different main contractor embody Longview Options Group, which is being paid $25.6 million for website preparation, civil engineering, street building and fence set up. Doodie Calls, a St. Petersburg-based provider of transportable bogs and bathe trailers, was awarded a $22 million contract.
The agency Gothams landed a $21.1 million contract to supply IT companies, entry badges and wristbands for detainees, whereas SLSCO LTD and Garner Environmental Companies have been each awarded $19.7 million offers to construct out the location and deal with ongoing upkeep.
Corrections officers to be paid as much as $11,600 a month
One of many contracts shared with The Related Press exhibits Crucial Response Methods was set rent a warden for the short-term facility at $125 an hour and probably spend greater than $400,000 in extra time pay. It isn’t clear how lengthy staffers can anticipate to work on the facility.
Corrections officers on the facility can anticipate to earn as much as $11,600 a month, plus extra time, in accordance with a job posting for the corporate on LinkedIn. The beginning pay for Florida’s rank-and-file corrections officers is $22 an hour or about $3,800 a month on the state’s brick-and-mortar prisons, which have been so persistently understaffed that DeSantis deployed members of the Florida Nationwide Guard to work at them for greater than two years.
Zero publicly obtainable contract paperwork
As journalists and watchdogs have raised questions concerning the contracts and firms behind them, paperwork detailing deliverables and line-item spending have disappeared from the state’s web site. They have been changed with one-page invoices that present little greater than the names of the businesses, how a lot they’re charging, the dates on which every deal was signed and an tackle for the place to ship the invoice.
Some multimillion greenback contracts have been awarded to political donors who’ve given to campaigns supporting DeSantis and different Republicans.
The governor’s workplace directed questions concerning the contracts to the Florida Division of Emergency Administration, the state company in command of constructing the detention heart. Spokesperson Stephanie Hartman mentioned the contracts have been eliminated as a result of they included “proprietary data that shouldn’t have been uploaded.”
The division didn’t reply questions on whether or not the total contracts could be launched.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
