The Trump administration has paid Florida $58 million for operating the Everglades immigrant detention center called \u201cAlligator Alcatraz,\u201d the first of promised federal reimbursements set to flow into the state.<\/p>\n
The payment came in on May 18, three days after the Federal Emergency Management Agency told<\/a> Florida\u2019s emergency managers that $58 million of the promised $608 million had been approved.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, we have received it,\u201d Stephanie Hartman, communications director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told the Phoenix. FDEM is the agency in charge of the sprawling center deep within the Everglades.<\/p>\n Her confirmation came minutes after Gov. Ron DeSantis mused on the slow, bureaucratic pace of FEMA reimbursements \u2014 noting that federal payments for hurricane cleanup can sometimes take years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re now already seeing reimbursements [for \u2018Alligator Alcatraz] flowing down,\u201d DeSantis said at a Davie press conference Friday. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna get that reimbursed \u2014 we\u2019ve gotten some, we\u2019ll get more.\u201d<\/p>\n A FEMA spokesperson confirmed that the agency disbursed the money. It\u2019s the first payment made from FEMA\u2019s Detention Support Grant Program, a 2025 initiative created specifically to reimburse Florida $608.4 million for activities related to \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d and other state-run detention centers.<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s unclear which endeavors this payment will cover, the federal grant can only pay for operational costs \u2014 not modifications or construction<\/a> linked to the remote Everglades center. So far, the facility \u2014 hastily built atop a mostly unused airport last summer \u2014 has cost Floridians $460 million.<\/p>\n Roughly $390 million of that went out between June and October. The center is expected to cost roughly $1 billion by its closing time, which The New York Times reports to be in the next month.<\/p>\n Under FEMA\u2019s grant rules, the program can reimburse costs for:<\/p>\n Clothing and bedding.Hygiene\/laundry\/janitorial services and supplies.Staff salaries.Meals and beverages for detainees and some food service equipment.Office supplies.Legal and translation services.IT support (does not include installation or maintenance of equipment).Medical equipment and supplies.<\/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":"The Trump administration has paid Florida $58 million for operating the Everglades immigrant detention center called \u201cAlligator Alcatraz,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-291862","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\/291862","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=291862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}