TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WPTV) — As Atlantic hurricane season reaches its peak, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is asking state lawmakers for $250 million — on top of what has already been allocated in the state budget.
When the Joint Legislative Budget Commission meets in Tallahassee this Friday, it will field the nine-figure request from FDEM, which says it needs to “process outstanding obligations.”
The request from the Executive Office of the Governor, which oversees FDEM, shows roughly $188 million of the $250 million would go toward what it calls an “illegal migration appropriation.”
FDEM was in charge of Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention facility in the middle of the Everglades that operated for about a year before closing earlier this summer.
When the facility opened in July 2025, President Donald Trump said FEMA would pay for it. According to USASpending.gov, the Department of Homeland Security has paid FDEM just under $85 million out of a $608 million detention support grant it approved last year.
I dug through state financial records and identified more than $900 million in contracts with vendors related to Alligator Alcatraz. Estimates — including one from FDEM itself — put the total cost of the facility at more than $1 billion.
The remaining $62 million of FDEM’s request covers invoices related to hurricanes Idalia, Helene and Milton, as well as wildfires that burned earlier this year.
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