Florida officials are fighting a court order to expand detainee phone access at the so-called \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d center, arguing it would be too costly for taxpayers \u2014 but they\u2019ve already spent roughly $34 million in public dollars on technology, IT support, and more, state records show.<\/p>\n
The agency in charge of the remote center, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM), did not explain why the millions it has already spent in that silo doesn\u2019t cover cell or landline service, why additional funding would be needed, or what those millions specifically funded, if not internet or carrier services.<\/p>\n
The dispute arose after U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell in March ordered<\/a> DEM to provide at least one phone for every 25 detainees so they can make confidential legal calls, after civil rights advocates alleged officials were limiting access to attorneys.<\/p>\n As of April 2, the facility had 1,383 detainees<\/a> booked.<\/p>\n DEM denied all wrongdoing, and said detainees can speak to their attorneys through confidential Zoom calls or in person at the center.<\/p>\n They also claimed that complying would be prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n Adding landlines or building cell towers would be \u201centirely unfeasible,\u201d DEM argued Wednesday in court filings, pleading with the judge to pause her order. The only way they could add phones would be to spend $180K up front and another $6,000 weekly to mobilize and maintain cell connectivity at the center, which they say lacks traditional telephone infrastructure.<\/p>\n That would be for 77 cellphones, 77 security configurations, manual labor, and installation.<\/p>\n The agency did not respond to the Phoenix\u2019s questions about how its existing $34.2 million in technology spending fits into those claims. Records from Florida\u2019s government accountability website show the payments from the state\u2019s emergency fund \u2014 dating to September \u2014 went to companies providing services for internet, communications, surveillance, IT support, and radio.<\/p>\n They did not explain specifically where that money went or provide line-items for the millions spent.<\/p>\n The lion\u2019s share \u2014 $33 million \u2014 was paid to Gothams LLC. Public records previously reviewed<\/a> by the Phoenix revealed that Gothams was hired to handle the following at \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d:<\/p>\n Internet supply and firewall.Access control system.Surveillance systems.Communications.Office technology.On-site IT support.Comprehensive support services for all technology installed within the facility.<\/p>\n The remaining $1.2 million went to seven other vendors, including nearly $500,000 for Baker\u2019s Electronics and Communications, almost $400K for SkyBase Communications, and thousands more for SpaceX, Starlink, AT&T, Comcast, and Accu-Tech.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s case to pause the court order comes as Florida still awaits<\/a> a $608 million reimbursement from the federal government for Alligator Alcatraz. DEM has said that these new phone costs likely won\u2019t be covered by the feds \u2014 and therefore would be provided at the Florida taxpayer\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state of Florida has not received any federal funding for the Alligator Alcatraz facility, and the federal government has not obligated itself to reimburse the State Defendants for the costs of complying with the preliminary injunction,\u201d DEM bureau chief Ian-Paul Gadea-Guidicelli wrote.<\/p>\n The case follows a legislative reckoning<\/a> with DEM\u2019s spending from Florida\u2019s emergency fund. During the 2026 legislative session, the chambers battled over whether to add guardrails on what DEM could use the trust for.<\/p>\n DEM reported that it spent more than $573 million on immigration in three years \u2014 more than 70% of it in the six months<\/a> after \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d was constructed, including millions in legal fees<\/a> and hundreds of thousands on private jet flights to and from the center and food products.<\/p>\n The Legislature created the emergency fund in 2022 to allow the governor to quickly spend money on disasters without legislative approval. When Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on immigration the following year, it opened the dollars to a host of anti-illegal immigration initiatives.<\/p>\n He\u2019s renewed the immigration state of emergency every 60 days since he first declared it in Jan. 2023.<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida officials are fighting a court order to expand detainee phone access at the so-called \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d center,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-248150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}