Ron DeSantis spent $1.2m per day to open and operate ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, spent $1.2m of taxpayers’ money per day to open and operate the notorious immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records obtained by the independent investigative news website the Florida Tributary reveal.

A switch in position by Donald Trump’s administration also now looks likely to leave Florida on the hook for at least $608m spent on the harsh Everglades detention and deportation facility and other immigration jails, the outlet said. That was despite gloating by DeSantis in September that the state would be reimbursed from federal funds.

James Uthmeier, DeSantis’s former chief of staff and Florida’s unelected attorney general, admitted last week the possibility that a federal reimbursement grant the governor had insisted was locked in might not be delivered after all.