When the Florida Legislature passed a budget last month that cut spending by 3%, elected leaders crowed. “Floridians,” said Senate President Ben Albritton, “expect us to spend their tax dollars wisely.”

Absolutely.

But what about “Alligator Alcatraz?”

While Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Gov. Ron DeSantis have characterized the Everglades detention center as “a low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility,” costs already appear to be rising.

The facility, hastily constructed on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, will reportedly cost $450 million per year to operate, a cost that’s being covered by Florida taxpayers unless and until the funding is reimbursed by the federal government.

But in fact, both the state and federal government, according to court filings, agree the feds haven’t formally agreed to foot the bill. “There has been no final federal funding decision,” said Florida Department of Emergency Management’s Kevin Guthrie in his response to the lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. Rather, Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s promise to use FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program revenue to pay for Alligator Alcatraz amounts to “an informal statement of future intent, not final agency action.”

This may simply be a coy way to evade the accusations in the Friends/CBD lawsuit, but Florida taxpayers ought to pay attention in case the feds really do decide they don’t want to pay for it, or all of it.

Moreover, the cost could exceed that $450 million price tag. According to DropSite News, internal FEMA documents show the cost of operating the facility ballooning to more than $600 million.

The Friends/CBD lawsuit — along with the suit filed by Democratic lawmakers who were denied access to the site — represent additional costs.

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orange County Democrat who along with other legislators toured the facility last weekend, reported on Bluesky that the state had spent $11 million to construct a new road to serve the detention center.

Then there’s the way DeSantis has used his immigration state of emergency authority to suspend procurement rules. No-bid contracts were doled out, in some cases to firms that had given to DeSantis’ and Uthmeier’s political campaigns. Regulations were waived, including those requiring pre-approval before buying new vehicles, watercraft or aircraft. 

Is any of this a good deal for the taxpayers? Who knows?

There’s more.

Illegal immigration expenditures, by law, are supposed to be audited if an emergency is extended for more than one year, meaning there should have been two annual audits by now for a declaration made in January 2023. Instead, there have been no audits. So there’s no way to know if Floridians are even getting sufficient bang for their immigration enforcement buck.

Finally there’s the site, which Uthmeier has called “efficient.” But due to the isolated location, all supplies must be trucked in over comparably long distances, while waste must be trucked out. It’s actually one of the least efficient locations possible; its remoteness adds to the operating cost of $245 per bed, per day.

All governments spend money on their priorities, and the DeSantis and Trump administrations clearly consider immigration enforcement to be money well spent. But no fiscal conservative can support this type of reckless, unaccountable spending.

But in a Reason article this week, Autumn Billings wrote that the original Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay was shuttered because it was too expensive — and Alligator Alcatraz should be closed for the same reason.

“…Much like the original Alcatraz prison, elected officials should be wary of the rising cost that remote detention facilities have on taxpayers,” wrote Billings. “Costs aren’t the only reason why Florida’s state-run immigration detention center should close. But just as the original Alcatraz closed down for its ballooning costs, so too should Alligator Alcatraz.”