Florida Gets $38M From ICE for Immigration Crackdown

By Livia Caputo, Florida Phoenix

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun to reimburse Florida law enforcement for acting as federal immigration enforcement by arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants.

And though they presented Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday with hefty checks signed by President Donald Trump totaling more than $38.4 million for transportation and equipment costs, the federal government has yet to cover the at-minimum $245 million price tag for the Everglades detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The clock is ticking. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it will award the grant Florida requested weeks ago by Tuesday, Sept. 30 — now just five days away.

But DeSantis isn’t worried.

“What I said from the beginning on this is we will get reimbursed eventually,” he said at a press conference Friday afternoon, standing alongside ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier. 

“I saw [White House Border Czar] Tom Homan the other day and he’s just like, ‘Send us your reimbursements. We got a lot of money now, we want to help you guys.’ So that’ll happen,” the governor continued.

He added that the only people detained at the site are “military-aged males,” and that the “cadence” of deportation flights out of the “Deportation Depot” center in Baker County is going so well, the state will be up to five flights per week starting next week. 

The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) applied to be federally reimbursed for the Everglades site sometime in mid-September. The timing is iffy, although the Florida Phoenix confirmed it happened shortly after a federal appeals court ruled that a federal environmental law did not apply to the facility — keeping it open — because it hadn’t received federal dollars.

Less than eight days later, FDEM asked for federal reimbursement. The money, if approved, would come from FEMA’s new Detention Support Grant Program, which has roughly $608.4 million in its coffers. 

ICE’s $1.7B state partnership push

On Friday, DeSantis spoke from the Florida Sheriffs Association building alongside law enforcement, ICE officials, and Uthmeier, who brainstormed Everglades site in mid-June alongside the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE announced that $1.7 billion will go to various states with ICE partnerships, called 287(g) agreements. This money will fund the costs of equipment needed to transport undocumented migrants. Florida accounts for $38.4 million of that total, or roughly 2.26%.

$28.4 million will go to state law enforcement and $10 million to local law enforcement. The overall breakdown is $2.7 million in transportation funding for local agencies, $7.3 million in equipment funding for 974 local officers, $1 million in transportation funding for state agencies, and $27.5 million for 3,676 state officers.

These are all officers or agencies that have entered into a 287(g) agreement, which deputizes state and local law enforcement as federal immigration actors and empowers them to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.

Florida mandated all counties and all county sheriffs to sign 287(g) agreements through a controversial new law in February. Lawsuits immediately began to crop up, one of which included a federal judge blocking officers from making these arrests. Uthmeier, who instructed law enforcement to do so anyways, was held in civil contempt (though it was later overturned).

That case has ping-ponged to a federal appellate court, to the Florida Supreme Court, and is now back in the appellate court pending oral arguments in October. Other cases included the city of South Miami questioning whether cities must enter into 287(g) agreements, Democrats arguing humanitarian violations at the Everglades site, and environmental groups trying to shut down that facility over concerns of harming the Everglades.

“Our state agencies are going to be reimbursed,” DeSantis assured Friday. “Some people tried to say that wasn’t gonna happen, and I think today with these checks, this is just the beginning.”