Newly released records have spilled the beans on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention facility, revealing that it was slated to cost taxpayers a jaw-dropping sum, potentially over a billion dollars, as reported by Florida Trib. It turns out the state tried to keep the true price tag under wraps, but a judge’s order has finally brought these mind-boggling figures to light.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which spearheaded the whole operation, formally requested a whopping $1.49 billion grant from the federal government on August 7, 2025. This request really highlights the massive scale of spending on federal immigration enforcement, much of which has been happening largely out of public view and with little oversight from state lawmakers. We’re talking about a facility that was burning through more than $1 million every day, with a “daily burn” rate that even topped $3 million a day during its initial weeks.
These incredible figures came out in thousands of pages of internal emails, budget spreadsheets, and vendor contracts. Second Judicial Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey ordered FDEM to produce these documents as part of a lawsuit brought by the advocacy group Friends of the Everglades. For months, FDEM had been refusing to hand over these documents, despite Florida’s public records law, which used to be a national model for transparency but seems to be getting undermined by state agencies under the DeSantis administration.
It really makes you wonder who will ultimately foot the bill for this massive undertaking
These revelations couldn’t come at a more crucial time. State lawmakers are currently considering whether to reauthorize the multibillion-dollar emergency fund that gave the governor’s office the power to spend so profusely and rapidly on building and running this makeshift detention center, which is made up of tents and trailers.
What’s more, state officials and the federal government are giving conflicting accounts about whether Florida will ever actually get reimbursed for all these costs. A Florida Senate panel in the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature is set to consider the proposal to reauthorize the Emergency Preparedness & Response Fund on Monday.
Last month, FDEM Executive Director Kevin Guthrie acknowledged that the agency had spent $573 million on immigration enforcement since the emergency fund was created in 2022. This fund, housed in the governor’s office, allowed the executive branch to spend huge sums without needing explicit legislative approval.
However, it seems Guthrie didn’t tell lawmakers the whole story. The newly released records show just how much more the state intended to spend on these facilities, after quickly signing multimillion-dollar deals with various vendors. Some of these companies, by the way, have owners who are major Republican donors to political committees for DeSantis, President Trump, and other GOP candidates.
The documents really get into the nitty-gritty of the spending. At one point, the state estimated the Everglades facility’s “daily burn” rate, which is how much cash it cost daily to support 500 detainees, was more than $1.2 million a day. More than $92 million has already been paid to just one vendor, a portable restroom company called Doodie Calls. Their job was to set up temporary bathrooms and haul away an estimated 45,000 gallons of wastewater produced by the facility every single day.
Published: Mar 3, 2026 03:30 pm