Alligator Alcatraz: When Political Theater Costs Millions

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.”

And we sure do. But what about “Alligator Alcatraz?”

In fact, the immigrant detention center built on an old airstrip in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve is pricey and getting even pricier. It’s reportedly going to cost $450 million annually, but internal FEMA documents suggest it might cost more than $600 million. Florida will use tax dollars to fund it, theoretically being reimbursed by the federal government. But in fact, both federal and state officials have stated in court filings that there is no deal; the federal government has not paid anything yet, and Florida hasn’t formally asked.

Lawsuit costs are mounting. Gov. Ron DeSantis has doled out millions of dollars in no-bid contracts, and waived procurement rules. The state is supposed to be auditing these expenditures; it isn’t.

And then there’s the site itself; remote, requiring all supplies to be trucked in and all waste to be trucked out. The state apparently had to build a new road, to the tune of $11 million. Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, has called it an “efficient” location; but it’s about as inefficient — and ultimately, expensive — a spot as anyone could devise.

Bottom line: Floridians may want their tax dollars spent wisely — but Alligator Alcatraz is a prime example of the opposite. Click the link below for the full scoop.

Yikes: DeSantis tells Trump to let Florida build the EAA Reservoir

While we’re on the subject of Trump and DeSantis…

When the President visited Alligator Alcatraz July 1, he and Gov. DeSantis briefly discussed the prospect of the state taking over construction of the EAA Reservoir from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. DeSantis had pitched the idea on several previous occasions.

“You can delegate that to us, because we move faster than the Army Corps,” DeSantis told Trump. “So we will finish that reservoir. If you delegate it to us, I’ll get it done, and much quicker.”

And Trump liked the idea: “I would do that,” the President said. “Get it complete.”

The nearly $4 billion Everglades Agriculture Area reservoir is designed to curb Lake Okeechobee discharges to the northern estuaries. According to the Army Corps’ “Integrated Delivery Schedule,” the project is to be completed by 2035 — and indeed, the completion date has been pushed back; earlier expectations were for the project to be finished by 2029.

So DeSantis’ concerns about the slow pace of construction may be legitimate. But as we noted back in January when he first raised this issue, one man’s “red tape” is another man’s caution tape. Would “moving faster” involve cutting corners or ignoring environmental concerns — a la “Alligator Alcatraz?”

No thanks. Sure, we want to get it done. But how about we get it done right?

Yet ANOTHER sweet deal for sugar!

Via John R. Puri at the National Review, looks like the sugar industry is getting yet another governmental “favor”:

Billed as an “America First Trade Win,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it will allow “no additional imports of specialty sugars beyond what U.S. international obligations dictate.” It explains, “Over the last 20 years, sugar imports have more than doubled and producers have lost 15% of the U.S. sugar market to imports, leading to closures of mills and processors — economic and financial losses that impact farmers, rural communities, and consumers. This decision begins to right the ship.”

Notes Puri:

Of course, the federal government already runs a protectionist racket to protect domestic sugar producers. Thanks to the U.S. Sugar Program, which has restricted imports through a strict tariff-rate quota since 2002, Americans pay more than twice as much for sugar as the rest of the world. To that, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says: Not good enough! We need to constrict the supply of foreign sugar even more than we already do. Never mind that the sugar program already costs us 17,000 to 20,000 jobs in the food-production industry and makes consumers pay up to $4 billion more for food every year. That is the price we must pay for a truly “America First” policy.

Hey, it’s not “America first” — it’s SUGAR first, always.

How do you turn anger into action?

Right now, the battle over “Alligator Alcatraz” is playing out in court — and the case against it is strong. Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity have made it clear that DHS, ICE, and the DeSantis administration ignored federal law requiring an environmental review.

With the Miccosukee Tribe now joining the lawsuit, and public outrage continuing to grow, we believe mounting pressure will force a premature “Mission Accomplished” moment — and they’ll be forced to shut this boondoggle down. Unfortunately, they’ll likely leave behind a costly, destructive mess.

But we all know that the real solution isn’t just legal — it’s political.

Projects like this happen because elected leaders put politics over science, shut out local voices, and cater to powerful special interests. That’s why as we approach the 2026 elections, VoteWater will focus like never before on political accountability.



We’ll:

✔️ Poll candidates and ask the tough questions about their stance on clean water

✔️ Endorse the ones who will protect Florida’s waterways — and expose those who won’t

✔️ Track “dirty money” and call out the special-interest influence behind bad decisions

✔️ Turn public outrage into real political change

We’ve seen it already — with the backlash over the state parks debacle, the Guana Preserve giveaway, and now “Alligator Alcatraz.” People are fired up.

Our job is to help them turn that anger into action — and into votes.

As a 501(c)(4), VoteWater is uniquely positioned to do this work. But we need your help to build momentum heading into 2026.



Thanks for standing with us — and for Florida’s future.

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