Gov. DeSantis makes case for Alligator Alcatraz amid emergency fund challenge

Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing back after a House Committee advanced legislation (PCB TED 26-02) requiring certain emergency money in its proposed budget be used for natural disasters only, and not detainment facilities like the controversial Alligator Alcatraz.

DeSantis said if Florida doesn’t stand up these facilities, then the federal government would release undocumented immigrants rather than use its resources to do the job.

“The folks in the Legislature have campaigned on this stuff for many, many years. And so I’d be very surprised if they were going to do anything that was going to lead to the release of really significant numbers of criminal aliens and handicap our ability to protect Florida’s shores,” DeSantis said, regarding money programmed for lockups and shore patrol duties that find state forces turning immigrants back.

Speaking Tuesday in Titusville, the Governor said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is “working to build up more processing and staging capacity,” but that Florida is “helping out of necessity.”

“We’re helping because if we don’t do it, you’re going to have a lot of illegal aliens, including criminal aliens, that are going to be released, not because DHS wants to do that, but because they have no place to be able to put them.”

When will the feds be ready to handle the costs?

DeSantis thinks he’ll be out of office before then.

“I hope DHS ramps up to where they have their own stand-alone capacity. We’ll still be helping in the field, like we’re doing, for sure, but if they’re able to assume 100% of that mission, great. I mean, they should do that, but they did not have the resources when this administration started,” DeSantis said.

“I know they’re trying to build it up, and Florida had even less compared to a lot of other states per capita. We were one of the lowest. So they’ve got a lot that they’d have to build up here in the state of Florida. But I anticipate that’ll likely happen. It’s not ready yet, but it will likely happen, probably within the next year.”

As is the case on a portfolio of issues, the Senate is warmer to the Governor’s position. Last week, Senators approved legislation (SB 7040) that reauthorizes the existence of the fund.