Florida has spent hundreds of millions of state tax dollars on an immigration detention center in the heart of the Everglades — yet it's still awaiting reimbursement from the federal government for the costs incurred.
The state acknowledged in a court filing late last month that money for Alligator Alcatraz may not be coming.
"The State took the risk (and still does) that federal funding will not materialize. Florida has spent over $600 million on Alligator Alcatraz. It filed its expenses with the federal government in September," the filing reads.
Also, in front of a Senate committee in February, Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said the state is still waiting for a different $250 million reimbursement.
"We have made a request of the Department of Homeland Security in writing, requesting that Secretary Noem reimburse us approximately $250 million for activities through Operation Vigilant Sentry and other situations," Guthrie said. "That the federal government reimburses us for those. That has been under consideration for give or take 8 months; we're waiting to hear back on that."
That's about $850 million Florida has spent on various immigration enforcement programs, including Alligator Alcatraz.
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Attorney General James Uthmeier has said since the Division of Emergency Management operates the detention center, they have no reason to believe the federal government will not reimburse.
"I do believe that the state will largely be reimbursed for those costs given that we were delegated by the federal government. It was approved. The president went down there for the grand opening," Uthemeier said.
Alligator Alcatraz has faced several lawsuits so far. One of them is by the Friends of the Everglades organization, other environmental groups, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, alleging the facility side-stepped federal environmental rules.
The organization sued last June in federal court under the National Environmental Policy Act. The suit said the government should have done an environmental impact study, taken public input and considered alternatives before opening the facility. However, this did not happen.
Thousands of documents released as part of the lawsuit show the federal government paused reimbursement for the facility late last year. But it has not rejected the funding request.
Legal filings show U.S. Department of Justice attorneys arguing that no "final federal funding decision" was made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to reporting by The Tributary.
"The Florida Roundup" reached out to the Florida Department of Emergency Management for its perspective on this topic and has not heard back by the time of publication.
Why funding is 'one piece of the puzzle'
Eve Samples with Friends of the Everglades said she believes the federal government funding will be forthcoming because of the records they've obtained. Samples said the money is just "one piece of the puzzle" that puts the detention center in federal purview.
"NEPA is the law we sued under: the National Environmental Policy Act. This is a bedrock environmental law that requires the government to look before it leaps," Samples told "The Florida Roundup host Tom Hudson. "Funding is one portion of what makes an action federal. This is also an ICE detention center, an immigration detention center. And immigration law in our country is the purview of the federal government."
Florida has argued in its filings "there is no federal control to launder. If the federal government chooses not to provide funding and assert control in advance, then it assumes the risks that states will make their own choices. Just so here. The State constructed and operated the facility, and the federal government had no say in whether or how the State proceeded."
Public records reveal the federal funds have been withheld due to the environmental litigation. Samples called the funding issue a "distraction" from how the government needs to comply with bedrock environmental laws.
"It's clear that this is a shell game that the state and federal government are playing in an attempt to dodge accountability for complying with important environmental laws," Samples said.
She added they received thousands of pages worth of documents recently showing the detention center costs more than a million dollars a day to operate. According to Samples, the detainee cost per night is $249 — adding it's about three times the average cost seen for a department of corrections facility in Florida.
"The reason this is so staggeringly expensive is because the state unwisely chose to build this facility in the heart of the Everglades, where there's no water and sewer infrastructure. There's no electrical infrastructure," Samples said. "Everything has to be trucked in and trucked out at huge expense to taxpayers and also posing great harm to the Everglades. This is the heart of Florida panther habitat."
Environmental review 'too little, too late?'
There was a state environmental review conducted by a third party in October. This was revealed as part of the documents released from the lawsuit. It concluded there were no significant adverse impacts on the environment. Except for maybe air quality and the concern of using thousands of gallons of diesel fuel each day to generate electricity.
Prior to the detention center opening, Gov. Ron DeSantis said last June there would be "zero environmental impacts" and that it's all temporary.
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"You're talking about the guy that's plowed how much money into Everglades restoration?" DeSantis said. "Why would I want to do anything that would do [that]?"
Samples dismisses the third-party environmental review as "too little too late." She believes if a review had happened under NEPA, the facility would never have been built. She said the public never had a chance to have input, nor did the government consider "less damaging alternatives."
"It also gets some facts wrong. It glosses over evidence that Florida panther habitat is in this area and, in fact, documented evidence that Florida Panthers have walked on the very runway that Alligator Alcatraz was built on and expanded around. It also omits the fact that there is a Miccosukee school very close to the site, and this environmental assessment, it says the nearest school is about 30 miles away," Samples said.
After hearing evidence last August, a federal court judge issued an injunction that halted activity at the site. But that injunction was put on hold, pending the outcome of an appeal. This allowed the facility to stay open for now.
Samples said they're back in front of the appeals court with oral arguments on the case on April 7.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Tom Hudson for "The Florida Roundup."
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