It’s no easy feat tracking all the ways “Alligator Alcatraz” was a total fisaco. 

Two new government reports add to the growing tally.

The first — an audit from the Department of Homeland Security’s own Office of the Inspector General — reveals the state-federal detention camp failed to comply with standards for environmental health and safety, medical care and other detention standards. The report includes haunting images from the facility, including photos of 18-square-foot metal enclosures called “calming areas” used to confine detainees. The New York Times published a front-page story about the OIG’s findings yesterday. 

The second report, released Friday by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, underscores the immense taxpayer burden of “Alligator Alcatraz.” It details how the state drained its emergency fund to $6.4 million by the end of June — just as hurricane season was getting underway — and projects a worst-case-scenario deficit of $1.5 billion for the emergency fund. 

On Friday, the state’s new FDEM director asked lawmakers for $250 million to replenish the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund — with $187 million of it to pay “Alligator Alcatraz” contractors. Some lawmakers met the request with skepticism.

State Rep. Allison Tant, a member of the Legislative Budget Commission, said her Tallahassee-area district was hit hard by storms in 2025 and some contractors were still waiting to be reimbursed. 

She wants to prioritize paying them, “versus a project, Alligator Alcatraz, that we didn’t even authorize as a legislature,” Tant said. 

Ultimately, the Legislative Budget Commission voted to approve the $250 million. But FDEM will have to return to the commission if it wants more state funding for manmade “disasters” in the future.

Friends of the Everglades’ advocacy and legal action played a role in this visible accountability.

We successfully sued FDEM for public records last October, obtaining a trove of information detailing $1.4 billion in estimated costs for immigration enforcement, the bulk of which was spent at “Alligator Alcatraz.” 

Following those revelations, the state Legislature passed a new law last spring, Senate Bill 7040, putting up guardrails around emergency fund spending. The law mandates FDEM get approval from state lawmakers for manmade “disaster” funding. The bill also required regular reporting on manmade “disaster” spending.

The new law is a start, but we’re not done. Our environmental lawsuit is advancing in federal court to hold the players accountable.

“Alligator Alcatraz” will go down in history as an affront to humanity, an abuse of taxpayer dollars and an assault on the Everglades. 

We won’t allow it to be swept under the rug.