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DOJ: Trump administration won’t pay for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ construction costs

Federal lawyers say any reimbursement — if it comes — would cover only operational costs.

A $608 million federal reimbursement that Florida’s been counting on to pay for the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” lockup won’t cover construction costs — if the money comes through at all, Justice Department lawyers have declared.

Instead, any potential dollars would only fund “operational costs,” not “construction or facility modification,” the DOJ said in a new federal court filing posted Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement may not even “materialize” at all, Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged in a separate filing.

This breaks from past assertions from both President Donald Trump and the DeSantis administration that the $608 million grant would largely foot the bill for Florida’s state-run detention centers.

“Any potential future federal funding is reimbursement-based, calculated per detainee, and available only for operational costs — not construction or facility modification,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson wrote.

“As it likely will be structured, there will be no potential federal funding of the facility’s design, siting, maintenance, or construction, and no federal approval authority over whether the facility is built at all,” he added.

Tuesday’s filings were part of an ongoing legal battle brought by the Friends of the Everglades, the Miccosukee Tribe, and Earthjustice against the federal government in hopes of shuttering the Everglades detention facility. The government, represented by DOJ lawyers, is appealing a lower court’s decision that sided with the activists.

The case centers on whether or not federal dollars going toward “Alligator Alcatraz” would mean it has to comply with federal environmental laws.

Florida has long waited for these federal dollars to come in. Although it was initially reported that DHS on Sep. 30 had awarded all $608 million to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, federal lawyers claimed Tuesday that the notice was simply a “letter from FEMA approving FDEM’s eligibility” for the grant.

FDEM Director Kevin Guthrie said earlier this month that FEMA told him the DOJ is holding up the reimbursement. This comes amid a massive restructuring within the DHS under Secretary Kristi Noem, who’s overseen mass firings and drawn heat for imposing additional restrictions on FEMA spending. This includes requiring her personal sign-off on expenses of more than $100,000, which has greatly slowed disbursements.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has operated both the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” and Baker County’s “Deportation Depot” migrant lockups over the past few months at the governor’s direction. They’ve pulled more than $406 million from the state’s emergency response fund since August to cover anti-immigration costs, including payments for private jets, restaurant meals, and legal fees.

That number represents 70% of the total spent on immigration in the past three years. Although it’s unclear how much went toward modifying the detention facilities, more than $380 million was shelled out on contracts, including $92 million to a porta-potty company and $60 million on a disaster response business.

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