{"id":289007,"date":"2026-05-29T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289007\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:54:10","slug":"gov-desantis-says-feds-will-continue-to-reimburse-florida-for-alligator-alcatraz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289007\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. DeSantis says feds will continue to reimburse Florida for Alligator Alcatraz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/a> has no doubt the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA<\/a>) will continue to pay Florida back for housing suspected illegal immigrants at Alligator Alcatraz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now already seeing reimbursements flowing down, and so that\u2019s going to happen,\u201d DeSantis said in Davie.<\/p>\n

DeSantis was speaking during an event<\/a> in which he highlighted prior immigration enforcement operations, including 25,000 287(g) arrests through coordinated state and local efforts.<\/p>\n

While Florida has been approved for $608 million in reimbursement, so far just $58.2 million has been disbursed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten some, we\u2019ll get more. And so that whole talking point will just vanish,\u201d DeSantis predicted.<\/p>\n

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

DeSantis doesn\u2019t expect the media to report the reimbursements, the slow pace of which he attributes to the \u201ctimetable\u201d when \u201cdealing with FEMA,\u201d which can take years to pay back money fronted by state governments for emergency response.<\/p>\n

DeSantis doesn\u2019t know what the future holds for federal immigration enforcement. But he continues to defend the state taking on the federal obligation.<\/p>\n

DeSantis argued that if the detainees had been released, it would have cost taxpayers money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re working through how they\u2019re going to do it. But I do know that they\u2019re committed to making sure there\u2019s enough space. I know that they\u2019re committed to making sure that the mission continues. So we\u2019ll continue to lead the way at the state level. And if every state has done what Florida has done, the problem would be that much closer to finally being solved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked Friday if costs were closer to a billion dollars, DeSantis hedged, but would not provide an actual number. He again reverted to talking points about money saved, floating a speculative scenario about costs incurred if an undocumented immigrant is at fault in an auto accident.<\/p>\n

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

He also isn\u2019t sure if and when Alligator Alcatraz will close, he told reporters, but deemed the situation to be \u201cin flux.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis also said it was a \u201cmistake\u201d for the Supreme Court not to hear Florida\u2019s case against California and Washington related to driver\u2019s licenses for undocumented immigrants. Justices Samuel Alito and\u00a0Clarence Thomas were the only two on the nine-person court compelled to adjudicate Florida\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

Regarding the aforementioned $608 million<\/a> from FEMA, Attorney General\u00a0James Uthmeier<\/a> said in a court filing that the full amount may not actually \u201cmaterialize<\/a>.\u201d The Department of Justice said any reimbursement would cover \u201coperational costs,\u201d not the estimated $245 million spent on \u201cconstruction or facility modification,\u201d suggesting that the infrastructural costs will come at the expense of the state.<\/p>\n

Vendors may have to be patient<\/a>, DeSantis said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk to the Division of Emergency Management about that. I mean, you know, I\u2019ve got bigger fish to fry than cutting checks to vendors. It\u2019s just not anything I\u2019ve ever been involved with. I know that they\u2019re involved with doing that stuff and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis has no doubt the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) will continue to pay Florida back for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3120,19412,13888,28,30,29,412],"class_list":["post-289007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligator-alcatraz","tag-davie","tag-fema","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289007","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=289007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}