The feds have the funds and it’s only a matter of time before Florida taxpayers are made whole.
Gov. Ron DeSantis[1] says there’s not much urgency to get promised monies from the Donald Trump[2] administration for Alligator Alcatraz[3].
DeSantis said in Tallahassee that what he “said from the beginning on this” still holds and that the state “will get reimbursed eventually.”
Critics have suggested the spend is significant, with independent journalist Jason Garcia noting that more than $350 million[4] in contracts have been signed.
The vendor-managed project was projected to cost $245 per bed, or $450 million a year, and was scheduled to be reimbursed from the Federal Emergency Management Agency[5].
DeSantis says help is on the way from the federal border czar.
“I saw Tom Homan[6] the other day, and he’s just like ‘send us your reimbursements. You know, we got a lot of money now. We want to help you guys.’ So that’ll happen,” DeSantis said, adding that Division of Emergency Management head Kevin Guthrie[7] is working to that end.
DeSantis noted that detainees are being moved out of Alligator Alcatraz, located at a training airport shared by Dade and Collier counties, as well as Deportation Depot, a prison in Baker County repurposed for the mission of removing illegal immigrants.
Only “military-aged males” are currently in custody, and DeSantis is pleased with the “cadence” of comings and goings.
“We’re getting to the point where the folks that get processed in there, there’s a pretty quick turnaround. And that was the vision from the beginning. My job is not to just put people up indefinitely,” DeSantis said.
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References
- ^ Ron DeSantis (flgov.com)
- ^ Donald Trump (Whitehouse.gov)
- ^ Alligator Alcatraz (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ more than $350 million (jasongarcia.substack.com)
- ^ Federal Emergency Management Agency (www.fema.gov)
- ^ Tom Homan (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ Kevin Guthrie (floridapolitics.com)