DeSantis under fire for using disaster funds to build migrant detention jail

The Guardian

5 hours ago

Officials in Florida diverted crucial disaster preparedness and response resources to support the hasty construction of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention jail by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, a newly published report has claimed.
Some of the $20m in contracts analyzed by Talking Points Memo (TPM) before they inexplicably disappeared from the Florida department of financial services website went to donors or political allies of DeSantis, the report said.
Most of the money went to companies providing construction services, communications equipment to be used by jail staff, and security enhancements, according to TPM.
In a separate development on Thursday, it was disclosed that a 15-year-old boy was detained and held at the controversial remote Everglades jail for several days earlier this month, despite the insistence of state and federal authorities that only adults were housed there.
DeSantis's alleged raid on resources intended for disaster response has prompted fury from Florida Democrats, who say creating a deficit as the Atlantic hurricane season approaches its peak is the height of irresponsibility.
'DeSantis already operates under a cloud of corruption when it comes to stealing taxpayer dollars,' said Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who toured the remote Everglades detention center on Saturday with other Democratic lawmakers, and declared conditions there 'inhumane'.
'It's no surprise he'd siphon off and create shortfalls in our hurricane preparedness funds for this boondoggle, then hide it from the public, or that he'd hand out sweetheart contracts to donors to build this monument to cruelty and denied due process.'
DeSantis has said the jail was set up, and will be operated, using $450m in taxpayers' money he expects to be refunded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Yet in the government's response to a lawsuit filed by environmental groups seeking to close the controversial camp, Trump administration officials have attempted to distance themselves from the project.
TPM identified $19,983,785.03 in more than a dozen contracts that the state was invoiced for, or paid, from nine separate vendors. Some charged additional 'rush fees' for supplying their products, reflecting the DeSantis administration's urgency to get the camp up and running in time for Donald Trump's visit on 1 July.
At least one of the documents confirmed that resources allocated for Florida's 'disaster preparedness' apparatus were diverted to the jail, TPM said, and that all had come from the executive office of the governor and were marked 'procurement per executive order'.
The largest contract was for $11,903,977.18 to a company called Meridian Rapid Defense Group LLC, a provider of vehicle barriers that were used at DeSantis's 2023 inauguration.
The company's chief executive, Peter Whitford, told TPM he did not know if the 100 barrier sets ordered were destined for Alligator Alcatraz.
'What they do with that product is not part of our purview,' he said.
Previous reporting by the Miami Herald revealed that at least three vendors who won Alligator Alcatraz contracts had made financial donations to DeSantis or the Florida Republican party. TPM identified a fourth, a company called WeatherSTEM Inc, whose founder Ed Mansouri gave $3,000 to DeSantis in 2021.
Mansouri, whose company received a $24,740 contract for two lightning detectors, charged a $750 rush fee on each unit, the documents show. Mansouri told TPM: 'My admiration for Governor DeSantis has nothing to do with my business.'
According to the report, copies of all of the contracts were originally posted to the Florida accountability contract tracking system on the website of the state's department of financial services, but mysteriously disappeared during the course of TPM's reporting.
None of the state entities contacted by the Guardian for comment responded.
Thursday's revelation that an undocumented minor was sent to the jail, meanwhile, angered immigration advocates, who said it showed the chaotic nature of the state's haste to populate it with detainees with no criminal record or active proceedings.
The Tampa Bay Times identified the child as a 15-year-old Mexican national named Alexis, who was riding with friends in a vehicle stopped in Tampa by the Florida highway patrol. Troopers handed over the group to the custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who sent them to the Everglades facility on the day it opened.
Alexis's father told the newspaper he did not know where his son was for several days until he received a call from the camp. The Times said Alexis was now at a federal shelter for migrant children.
In an email to the newspaper, Stephanie Hartman, spokesperson for the Florida emergency management division that operates the jail, said Alexis had lied about his age.
An alliance of environmental groups, immigration advocates, Native American tribes and Democratic politicians has formed in opposition to the jail. A Move On petition calling for its closure had recorded almost 45,000 signatures by Thursday.
'This place needs to be shut the hell down,' Wasserman Schultz said.
'This internment camp is an outrageously wasteful publicity stunt, designed to hurt immigrants and distract from reckless Republican policies.'