A new, flippantly named immigration detention center has been opened in north Florida, deemed “Deportation Depot” by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, whom DeSantis appointed to carry forward his agenda. At the same time, Alligator Alcatraz is resuming operations as the 11th Circuit issues a stay on a temporary injunction ordered by Federal Judge Kathleen Williams, which ordered no more transfers into the Everglades facility, along with its dismantling within 60 days due to its harmful environmental impact.
But DeSantis and Uthmeier are not stopping there. As if they had seemingly just discovered alliteration, they plan to open up a third detention facility near Pensacola, called “Panhandle Pokey” by DeSantis in a recent press conference.
Thomas Kennedy has worked with organizations such as the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Immigration Hub.
DeSantis and Uthmeier claim that these facilities are needed to detain the ever-increasing number of undocumented immigrants apprehended in the state by not just federal immigration enforcement, but by state police like the Florida Highway Patrol, which has been deputized under a 287g agreement to serve as a show-me-your-papers patrol.
These detention centers are a solution in search of a problem, and that problem has been created purposefully by the state of Florida through its overzealous immigration enforcement policies. The end goal is simple: to steer hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to politically connected companies that will operate these facilities through no-bid contracts.
According to procurement records reported by journalist Jason Garcia, Florida’s state government has awarded more than $350 million in contracts to companies connected with Alligator Alcatraz, and the DeSantis administration has already admitted in court that $218 million has already been spent on the operation of Alligator Alcatraz. Just one obscure but connected company from Jacksonville scored a whopping $78 million contract to provide a range of different services at the site, including staffing, training and security.
Hefty political donations often preceded the disbursement of these multimillion-dollar contracts. Such was the case of IRG Global Emergency Management Inc., a Texas-based emergency management company that donated $10,000 to the Republican Party of Florida and, within days, received a $1.1 million contract to provide “operational support services” at Alligator Alcatraz. The company would soon be awarded two more contracts, totaling $5.1 million.
There are many other cases of these seeming quid pro quo, and companies bypass competitive bidding requirements due to having been selected from an existing pool of vendors already approved by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, which operates the state-run Alligator Alcatraz. DeSantis has also recently extended a now two-and-a-half-year-old emergency order, using it to seize land from Miami-Dade County, avoid permitting requirements, and circumvent competitive bidding processes, without even bothering to sign federal legal agreements to operate an immigration detention facility. The backdrop to all of this is Florida’s dismal financial projections, with state economists predicting a $1.52 billion deficit in years 2027-2028 that could balloon into a $6.57 billion deficit just a year later.
It’s this sort of wasteful spending that led to Florida’s extended legislative session earlier this year, in which state officials in the Senate, House and Governor’s office quarreled over budget cuts to avoid a previously projected $2.8 billion deficit next year. Despite this, we continue to see hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars routinely wasted in nonsensical immigration enforcement and detention facilities at a time when Florida is suffering from acute labor shortages and a slowdown of population growth that the state’s own Office of Economic and Demographic Research acknowledges can only be alleviated through migration.
If we want to root out waste, fraud and abuse at the state level in Florida, we should start with the hundreds of millions of dollars steered toward no-bid contracts at Alligator Alcatraz and avoid committing that mistake again. Unfortunately, the graft seems to be the point. Well-connected people are getting very wealthy from the operation of these immigration detention facilities that are currently proliferating in the Sunshine State.
Thomas Kennedy has worked with organizations such as the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Immigration Hub, as well as in the Florida Legislature. You can find him on X and Blue Sky at @tomaskenn.
