By Liv Caputo, The Florida Phoenix
Florida’s emergency managers spent more than $405 million in taxpayer dollars in six months to fight illegal immigration, but that doesn’t just include law enforcement, state spending records show: It covers private jet flights, restaurant meals, and badges.
This means 70% of the state’s total immigration spending in four years occurred in the past six months. The disclosure comes as officials continue to insist Florida will be reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars by the federal government — a promise federal authorities have cast serious doubt upon.
Records on the state’s government accountability website show that the Florida Division of Emergency Management used the state’s emergency respond fund to spend $405.6 million from August through February on 83 contracts with private vendors.
That figure includes expenditures like $479,000 to one private jet firm for staff flights to and from the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center and to support evacuation of Americans during the Israel-Hamas war; thousands spent at 55 restaurants; and a $203.72 purchase at “Awards4U,” a company that lets customers create their own badges, trophies, or awards.
FDEM says all purchases are above board.
The fund also paid more than $92 million to a single portable restroom company and nearly $30,000 on rental cars.
In a statement provided to the Phoenix, FDEM says that the food expenditures were for staff activated at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Tallahassee and Awards4U was for name badges.
“Since 2022, the Emergency Preparedness Response Fund has been used for the response and recovery efforts of a wide variety of disasters, to include natural, man-made and technological hazards,” communications director Stephanie Hartman said in an email. “$573 million has been spent on Operation Vigilant Sentry, and the $405 million is included within that total.”
She described a longstanding U.S. Department of Homeland Security operation to oppose undocumented immigration in the Caribbean Sea.
The state has hoped to be reimbursed for most of those costs with a $608 million federal grant — although the feds have claimed that they never promised to repay the state.
The Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund is a trust that allows the governor to quickly spend money during declared emergencies without legislative approval. Florida has been under a standing state of emergency for immigration since January 2023.
Bumpa’s Sports Bar, Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila, TLC Jet Services
Among the more notable expenses was $156,147.67 categorized as “food products” between August and February. That category includes payments to at least 55 restaurants — many of which are in the Tallahassee area — on the emergency fund’s dime, according to a review by the Phoenix.
This doesn’t count charges under this section made at the Vitamin Shoppe, Walmart, Wawa, Home Depot, or even the Tractor Supply Co.
- On Aug. 13, Sep. 3, and Oct. 8 three payments totaling $2,170.07 were made to Pedro’s Tacos and Tequila Bar, a Mexican restaurant chain in the Southeast.
- On Aug. 13, Oct. 7, and Oct. 27, three payments totaling $1,199.7 were made to Bumpa’s Sports Bar, in Tallahassee.
- On Oct. 8 and Oct. 27, two payments totaling $1,366 were made to Liberty Bar and Restaurant, a Tallahassee spot.
Hartman said all food costs — including the bars — were for staff meals at the EOC.
Midtown Caboose, Chick-Fil-a, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, and Bagel Bagel were paid more than $3,000 apiece. Slightly less expensive charges (under $1,800) were made at Outback Steakhouse, Kyoto Japanese Cuisine, and Korean BBQ.
Amazon Marketplace, meanwhile, saw more than $10K worth in transactions in this section, while Sam’s Club — a member’s only retailer — had more than $20K in payments.
The priciest single payment in the food section belonged to Shannon Outdoors, a rural Georgia company boasting insect-protective clothing, heavy duty camouflage, and thousand-dollar bows and arrows to protect adventurers in the Carolina lowlands.
FDEM spent $18,859.50 there on Aug. 13 for mosquito and insect protection, Hartman said.
Other payments include:
- A total of $479,209.33 to TLC Jet Services, a Fort Lauderdale private jet company. The business is listed under general contracted IT services (one $162,240 charge), supplies (two charges adding up to $87,167.60), and out-of-state airfare (two charges adding up to $229,801.73).
- Hartman: “TLC Jet expenses supported Israel evacuation efforts and enabled the rapid transport of state agency personnel to and from the southern detention facility to bring it online efficiently.”
- A $203.72 purchase at Awards4U on Dec. 2 listed under the “supplies” section. A Tallahassee company, its website boasts customizable awards, plaques, ribbons, and badges.
- Hartman: “Awards4U expenses covered name badges and State Emergency Response Team identification for personnel deployed during emergency operations.”
- $1.1 million to the Democratic-tied law firm Boies, Shiller & Flexner on Dec. 31, a high-profile crisis management law firm that represents Amazon, Facebook, Oracle, Apple, and Sony.
Political connections, Doodie Calls
Nearly $380 million of the $405 million shelled out since August went to contractors. Several of these vendors have ties to the DeSantis administration or the Republican Party of Florida, as previously reported by the Miami Herald.
This includes $20.7 million to the Texas disaster response company Gothams LLC; $9.2 million for the security service firm GardaWorld; and more than $25.5 million for three affiliates of CDR, an emergency management agency headed up by married GOP donors Carlos Duart and Tina Vidal-Duart.
Vidal Duart last week was confirmed to the FAU Board of Trustees.
The priciest contract belongs to the porta-potty company Doodie Calls. Since September, nine payments have been made totalling $92,765,075.38.
Additional payments include $403,626.05 on a mail security scanner, $27,244.53 spent on Avis car rentals, $11,660 to wildlife and pest control specialists, and $1,488 to a manufacturer of pocket badges.
Travel costs totaled $145,164 for in-state lodging, $253,676 for out-of-state airfare and $213,148 for foreign airfare, including $2,557 paid to the Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation.
Florida Emergency Agency Ran up $405 Million Immigration Tab in Six Months added by The News Service of Florida on
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@ DeepStatePropagandist: You poor dear. I’m guessing daddy never told you that he loved you?
@Edward Lyle –
“the Biden Sadministration.”
The Biden Administration forced DeSantis to pay 92M for portable toilets in 2025? He was part of Big Porta Potty all along!
“We informed adults will take it from here.”
LOLOLOLOLOL.
@Earnest P Worrell –
“THAT’s where a normally functioning person would start to try to find a way to work together on a shared and mutually agreed upon problem.”
Sigh. Do you see any indication that how we’ve spent our money on ICE toilets is bothering anyone in the Republican base? Show me a Republican in the state house that cares. None of them were complaining when we started building Alligator Alcatraz. None of them were complaining with ICE got a 75B budget supplemental kick in the BBB, roughly 2X the FBI budget.
Where was the conservative outrage when Rick Scott’s company paid a 1.7B fine for defrauding Medicare (ie., me and you, the taxpayers)? There wasn’t any, because conservatives don’t care. (?)
“You’ll keep assigning motives and beliefs to people like me who haven’t ever typed a single thing about Laura Loomer or Kristy Noem or any of the other vitriolic nonsense you’re just spewing because you have the impulse control and judgement of a toddler with an energy drink.”
Conservatives enable this stuff though by consistently voting for it, and consistently failing to argue against it though. Show me a conservative policy maker who came out against what Laura Loomer said. (You can’t). Show me a conservative policy maker who was against modifying the Voting Rights Act. (You can’t).
You can’t just say, ‘Just because I keep voting people in who wanted to gut the Voting Rights Act doesn’t mean I am in favor of gutting the Voting Rights Act! Just because Nick Fuentes and Laura Loomer are huge conservative influencers doesn’t mean I vote for what they like! Just because I keep voting people in who shut the government down for a month to avoid releasing the Epstein files doesn’t mean I support that! Just because I voted for a guy that shares videos of black people faces on gorilla bodies means I support that! Just because people who fly Confederate flags vote Republican, it doesn’t mean I like the Confederacy.’
You lie with dogs, you get fleas. This isn’t difficult.
@ DeepStatePropagandist: You poor dear. I’m sure your pals at Pfizer have a shot you could get to help temper your derangement. You can bloviate your nonsense and maniacal hate all you wish, but you will never be able to deflect from the root cause of all of this… that being the Biden Sadministration.
Were it not for the Biden Sadministration inviting, incentivizing, aiding and abetting the invasion of our sovereign land by millions upon millions upon millions of unvetted, untested, disease carrying illegal alien criminals, murderers, thugs, drug cartels, rapists, fraudsters, gangbanger, and pedophiles… we would not be here in this moment in time.
Your pals caused this mess, and we American citizens and taxpayers have suffered as a result. So, until you can list the number of unvetted, untested, disease carrying illegal alien criminals, murderers, thugs, drug cartels, rapists, fraudsters, gangbanger, and pedophiles you’ve invited to live in your house – and have fully funded their existence – then your banality will continue to be exposed.
Now, take another hit off the ol’ bong, grab another bag of Doritos, and head on down to the basement and play a video game. We informed adults will take it from here.
“You gonna defend spending 92M on portable toilets?”
No, you cosmically dense nitwit. THAT’s where your common ground is. THAT’s where a normally functioning person would start to try to find a way to work together on a shared and mutually agreed upon problem.
Not you, though. You’ll keep assigning motives and beliefs to people like me who haven’t ever typed a single thing about Laura Loomer or Kristy Noem or any of the other vitriolic nonsense you’re just spewing because you have the impulse control and judgement of a toddler with an energy drink.
@Earnest P Worrell –
You can make like the Republican MAGA base isn’t about racism, but why? You see Laura Loomer go off about the super bowl tragedy? (“It’s not white enough for me”). Nick Fuentes is an influential conservative. You know who led the effort to dismantle the voting rights act? Republican attorney generals. Remember when Trump posted a video including ape Michelle and Barak Obama? It was last week. Oh, but now to clutch your pearls at the mere accusation! Like it’s some big secret. LOLOL.
“Here, you have a conservative leaning outfit posting a story about which you might find common ground to work together toward a cooperative solution and yet, you cannot resist the urge to defame and insult.”
What’s defamatory? Conservatives should feel bad because their policies are bad for America and the rationale for those policies is morally bankrupt. It wasn’t some big surprise to anyone who has been paying attention for the past decade that this whole thing would be a dollar transfer to Republican donors. (Leaving Floridian’s on the hook). Rick Scott took the fifth like 80 times when his company was found guilty of defrauding Medicare for 1.7B. What happened? You guys put him in the Senate. It’s always been a grift.
You gonna defend spending 92M on portable toilets?
“Your Maoist public humiliation sessions are tiring and counterproductive and the only hope I can find in that is that you seem to be too dumb to understand how you’re hurting your own efforts and will remain as ineffective as a tissue paper barrier to a speeding truck.”
Not sure if you are up on current events, but Trump’s ratings are in the Doodie Calls zone. Also, Trump is in the Epstein files a zillion times.
DeepStatePropagandist has serious Alinsky Projection and TDS issues. He/she/it no longer recognizes his/her/its own hypocrisy and needs to be watched closely.
“…conservatives don’t care about throwing good money after bad if it is in service of hurting brown people.”
God, you are insufferable.
Here, you have a conservative leaning outfit posting a story about which you might find common ground to work together toward a cooperative solution and yet, you cannot resist the urge to defame and insult.
Your Maoist public humiliation sessions are tiring and counterproductive and the only hope I can find in that is that you seem to be too dumb to understand how you’re hurting your own efforts and will remain as ineffective as a tissue paper barrier to a speeding truck.
It’s always been a grift but conservatives don’t care about throwing good money after bad if it is in service of hurting brown people. Plus, they’d have to reconcile the fact that they’ve been wiling participants of a grift, as the patsy, for the past decade. It’s pretty clear conservatives aren’t able to perform that type of self reflection.
“The disclosure comes as officials continue to insist Florida will be reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars by the federal government — a promise federal authorities have cast serious doubt upon. ”
LOL. Why would anyone believe Trump would repay, or pay, them for anything?
“Nearly $380 million of the $405 million shelled out since August went to contractors. Several of these vendors have ties to the DeSantis administration or the Republican Party of Florida, as previously reported by the Miami Herald.”
What a shock.
“The priciest contract belongs to the porta-potty company Doodie Calls. Since September, nine payments have been made totalling $92,765,075.38. ”
Every Floridian has given $4 to Doodie Calls. Close to twenty percent of Florida’s immigration control spending has been for portable toilets. This seems like good judgement and totally not nepotism. I just worry that if we spend all of this money on toilets and jets to Israel and fake badges, where will we find tax dollars to give to contractors to police drag shows? So many priorities to shuffle. What a time to be alive.
Private Jet Flights to “Alligator Alcatraz”? WTH, that is a 6 Hour Drive from Tallahassee. ALSO, you should start a New State Agency, call it Department of Borders and Security and just Hire those People, it would be a lot cheaper. They would live near by and not have to Fly or Rent Vehicles or get Hotel Rooms.