Florida Out $218 Million For Shuttered ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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We can thank the Miccosukee tribe for shutting down Trump’s concentration camp when the rushed project failed to do any environmental impact assessment at all in the sensitive wetlands area. And certainly Ron DeSantis wasn’t going to do it either. Now, Florida is out a minimum of $218 million, all because these people don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

Source: Associated Press

Orlando AP — Florida could be on the hook for $218 million the state spent to convert a remote training airport in the Everglades into an immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The center may soon be completely empty as a judge upheld her decision late Wednesday, ordering operations to wind down indefinitely.

Shutting down the facility for the time being would cost the state $15 million to $20 million immediately, and it would cost another $15 million to $20 million to reinstall structures if Florida is allowed to reopen it, according to court filings by the state.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management will lose most of the value of the $218 million it has invested in making the airport suitable for a detention center, a state official said in court papers.

Built in just a few days, the facility consists of chain-link cages surrounding large white tents filled with rows of bunk beds.

An Associated Press analysis of publicly available state spending data showed that Florida has signed at least $405 million in vendor contracts to build and operate the facility, which officials had initially estimated would cost $450 million a year to run. A previous AP review found that as of late July, the state had already allocated at least $245 million to run the site, which opened July 1.

Homeland Security’s infamous tweet.

And more on the tribe, here: The Native American tribe that shut down Alligator Alcatraz.