Alligator Alcatraz construction costs fall to Florida

Florida is unlikely to be reimbursed for the $608 million cost of building Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center located in the Everglades.

In a court filing this week, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said any potential future federal funding will be available “only for operational costs – not construction or facility modification.”

“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,” wrote Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson.

The brief was filed in a lawsuit brought by environmental activist group Friends of the Everglades against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal defendants. The group has been arguing that the detention center was built without proper federal environmental protections.

Lawyers for the federal government argue that the facility is not subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, as the state has not received federal funding for the project.

According to the brief, funding decision-making is ongoing and there has been no federal obligation of funds for construction costs.

In another court filing, Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged the state is aware it might not receive reimbursement for the detention facility.

“The State constructed and operated the facility, and the federal government had no say in whether or how the State proceeded. The State took the risk (and still does) that federal funding will not materialize,” wrote Uthmeier.

The statements are a stark contrast to earlier ones by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who posted on her social media last July that FEMA would cover the majority of the costs of the facility. Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X in October that he had “said all along that we would be reimbursed.”

The Department of Homeland Security also previously stated that FEMA funds would be used to cover approximately $450 million a year to operate the detention center, according to court documents.

Uthmeier’s court filing affirms that while the federal government requested Florida build a temporary detention facility, the facility is currently operated and funded “unilaterally by a state government” and that “the state retains discretionary control over who is detained at the facility, all of which adds up to state control over the project’s outcome, not federal control.”