TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis ’ administration has already signed contracts to pay at least $245 million to set up and run the new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” according to a public database.
The amount — to be fronted by Florida taxpayers — is in line with the $450 million a year officials have estimated the facility will cost.
It’s also a reminder of the public funding that DeSantis’ Republican administration is spending to help carry out President Donald Trump ‘s mass deportation agenda.
Human rights advocates, faith leaders and environmentalists have condemned the detention center. So has Mark Morgan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term. Morgan wrote an opinion piece published by Fox News criticizing the facility as “built for headlines” and “ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption.”
Here’s a look by the numbers.
A state database of government contracts shows that since Florida officials announced plans for the facility on June 19, the Executive Office of the Governor has awarded at least two dozen contracts totaling more than $245 million in taxpayer funds to build and manage the facility. 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 the contracts were awarded under an executive order declaring an illegal immigration emergency the governor first enacted in 2023 and which he has renewed since then. The order grants the state sweeping authority to suspend “any statute, rule or order” seen as slowing the response to the emergency, including requirements to competitively bid public contracts.
State officials say at least some of the cost will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is best known for responding to hurricanes and other natural disasters. But in court documents filed earlier this month, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the federal government had yet to reimburse Florida for any of the costs. The department made clear that “Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority.”
The single largest state contract related to the facility is a $78.5 million deal with Critical Response Strategies, a Jacksonville-based consulting firm. The responsibilities covered include hiring a warden, camp managers, corrections officers and IT workers.
Other major contractor include Longview Solutions Group, which is being paid $25.6 million for site preparation, civil engineering, road construction and fence installation. Doodie Calls, a St. Petersburg-based supplier of portable toilets and shower trailers, was awarded a $22 million contract.
The firm Gothams landed a $21.1 million contract to provide IT services, access badges and wristbands for detainees, while SLSCO LTD and Garner Environmental Services were both awarded $19.7 million deals to build out the site and handle ongoing maintenance.
One of the contracts shared with The Associated Press shows Critical Response Strategies was set hire a warden for the temporary facility at $125 an hour and potentially spend more than $400,000 in overtime pay. It’s not clear how long staffers can expect to work at the facility.
Corrections officers at the facility can expect to earn up to $11,600 a month, plus overtime, according to a job posting for the company on LinkedIn. The starting pay for Florida’s rank-and-file corrections officers is $22 an hour or about $3,800 a month at the state’s brick-and-mortar prisons, which have been so persistently understaffed that DeSantis deployed members of the Florida National Guard to work at them for more than two years.
As journalists and watchdogs have raised questions about the contracts and companies behind them, documents detailing deliverables and line-item spending have disappeared from the state’s website. They’ve been replaced with one-page invoices that show little more than the names of the companies, how much they’re charging, the dates on which each deal was signed and an address for where to send the bill.
Some multimillion dollar contracts were awarded to political donors who have given to campaigns supporting DeSantis and other Republicans.
The governor’s office directed questions about the contracts to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, the state agency in charge of building the detention center. Spokesperson Stephanie Hartman said the contracts were removed because they included “proprietary information that shouldn’t have been uploaded.”
The department did not answer questions about whether the full contracts would be released.
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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.