{"id":176824,"date":"2026-03-03T21:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176824\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T21:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:16:21","slug":"florida-flummoxed-by-alligator-alcatraz-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176824\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida flummoxed by \u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019 funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida has joined the growing list of states<\/a> where President Donald Trump\u2019s mass incarceration and deportation plan is causing headaches for local officials, as the state faces a financial crunch for its choice to fund a name-brand jail that has come to epitomize the administration\u2019s racist anti-immigrant crackdown.<\/p>\n

Last summer, Republican officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, promoted the jail built in the Everglades, which MAGA branded \u201cAlligator Alcatraz,\u201d<\/a> and said its costs would ultimately be paid by the federal government. But the state attorney general was forced to admit in a legal filing last week that those funds might never come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State took the risk (and still does) that federal funding will not materialize,\u201d Attorney General James Uthmeier said in his filing<\/a>, which came as his office fights a lawsuit brought by local activists to shut down the jail. Uthmeier said he still believes the feds will \u201clargely\u201d cover the funds, citing the fact Trump visited the facility as one reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per Florida Politics<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018I 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. We were helping out as they were trying to get Congress to strike a deal and provide resources for this important mission,\u2019 Uthmeier said in Titusville.<\/p>\n

The hastily constructed<\/a> Everglades facility is one of several where detainees have reported being subjected to human rights abuses<\/a>. Historian Andrea Pitzer wrote a compelling argument for MS NOW last year that the facility meets the definition of a concentration camp<\/a>, similar to those used by Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi regime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday, as Local 10 News in Florida reported<\/a>, lawmakers in the state Senate held a bipartisan hearing at which various stakeholders fretted over whether and how the state will continue to withdraw money from its emergency coffers \u2014 typically reserved for responding to crises like natural disasters \u2014 to pay for Florida\u2019s anti-immigrant projects, including the facility in the Everglades.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJa’han Jones<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJa\u2019han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut\u00a0Blog.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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