Ooooh this is so much tea in one article
The revelations come as Florida lawmakers debate how to replenish the state’s emergency response fund, which expired Feb. 17 after legislators failed to agree on how much to spend on immigration enforcement.
Now that the fund is gone, Gov. Ron DeSantis would need legislative approval to quickly access emergency dollars for future disasters, such as hurricanes.
The fund, created in 2022 for immediate disaster relief, was opened to anti-immigration enforcement when DeSantis declared a state of emergency for immigration in January 2023. The state has drawn $573 million from the trust since then specifically for immigration actions.
Of that amount, the state spent $405 million in the past six months, including for private jet flights, restaurant meals, and legal fees.
Sooo, while people in Florida deal with hurricane after hurricane they’re spending their emergency fund on imprisoning people who, in almost all cases, just living their lives and doing things like...oh I don’t know...working in farms, construction, were military, teachers, cooks and all around upstanding citizens. Isn’t that just special…
However the fun part comes next.
You see, DeSantis and crew were ALL excited about building Alligator Alcatraz and went full bore without following procedure, aka things like environmental reviews. Their excitement resulted in Florida spending millions for this project but they were expecting reimbursement from the Feds because Trump promised them it would happen. We all know how this is going to go right?
The federal government is withholding a $608 million grant to help pay for Florida’s migrant lockups because a required environmental review still hasn’t been completed, newly released records show.
The so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” centers were projected to cost $1.7 billion over two years, with Floridians expected to pay at least $1.1 billion, according to nearly 3,000 pages of emails and financial sheets reviewed by the Phoenix.
And costs could climb even higher if the federal environmental review continues to delay reimbursement.
Now I am not quite sure why FEMA isn’t playing nice with DeSantis seeing as how FEMA is basically just a Trump extension. Either Desantis pissed him off somehow or Trump wants the money for his newest chaos of the week, or someone in FEMA still has a soul. Either way this is making my day.
But that’s not the only tea in the article, Florida has been trying to sidestep regs by saying that Alligator Alcatraz is fully state run while at the same time saying that it received/ waiting on grants from the feds to help pay for it. You can’t have it both ways folks.
This has been going on for months, the whole time the bill is getting higher, people’s rights are being trampled, to say the least as we all know people have gone missing from here and both sides are basically playing financial hot potato because no one wants to end up with this boondoggle (I love getting to use this to describe GOP crap because they have used it so long against Dems)
These new revelations are key to a pending lawsuit brought by environmental groups in which the state claimed that federal environmental restrictions don’t apply to the detention centers because they don’t use federal dollars or oversight.
DEM was forced to turn over these records to the plaintiffs as part of this suit. Groups like the Friends of the Everglades had demanded to know the exact dates that federal authorities and state officials agreed on the multi-million dollar grant.
“The records confirm what Friends of the Everglades has maintained from the outset: This is a federal immigration detention facility, conceived and constructed on the promise of federal funding,” Paul Schwiep, attorney for that organization, said in an email to the Phoenix. “Attempting to delay federal reimbursement to sidestep compliance with federal environmental law is gamesmanship — and will not work.”
The records help explain why Florida has yet to see a dime of federal money despite assurances it had been approved for the grant in September.
The records also highlight a contradiction in the state’s messaging:
- Publicly, Florida officials have dismissed the need to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because they say “Alligator Alcatraz” has received no federal funding and is entirely state-run. Executive Director Kevin Guthrie claimed the Justice Department was the agency tying up the funds.
- Privately, the correspondence shows, the agency knows why it hasn’t been paid: The federal government believes NEPA, through the environmental review, may apply to the state.
I always like starting my week with news of how the GOP is destroying itself. (sips coffee)
