Gov. Ron DeSantis says there’s nothing wrong with how inmates at two high-profile South Florida lockups are being treated as they await adjudication and deportation for illegal entry to the United States.

If anything, he said those being kept at the Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome) and the Everglades Detention Facility (Alligator Alcatraz) are getting too many amenities, especially given their history.

“You have a lot of criminal aliens. If you look at their rap sheets, you’ve got people that are sexual predators, you’ve got people that have committed, you know, really serious offenses. They shouldn’t have been in this country to begin with. And now they’re making claims, ‘Oh, they’re being abused.’ None of that is substantiated,” DeSantis said.

Amnesty International is the latest group to condemn the treatment of immigrants with disputed documentation, saying it falls “far below international human rights standards.”

DeSantis scoffed at the idea that inmates at Krome, a federal facility, were kept in a “black box.”

He also said Alligator Alcatraz coddled its occupants by supplying a mess hall, a library and other amenities.

“I’m like, do you really need to have all this stuff?’ Because honestly, I thought it was over the top,” DeSantis said.

“And they’re like, ‘Well, you know, we don’t want to be in a situation where we’re being accused of mistreating them.’ I was like, they are going to accuse you of that no matter what. You put them up in the Ritz-Carlton, they are going to accuse you of doing that.”

The latest comments continue an unorthodox defense of the state-federal partnership that served as a prototype for other immigration lockups around the country.

DeSantis previously marveled at an inmate complaining about the quality of a sandwich.

“One of the illegals said that his ham sandwich was cold,” DeSantis remarked. “And I’m thinking to myself, you know, you’re entitled to toasted hoagies?”

Florida’s Director of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie defended the facility’s turkey sandwiches against claims that they were “gray” and “nasty,” leading to that meditation.

DeSantis has also allowed that at least some of those removed from the country via the state-administered facility could have been done so despite being in America legally, saying that “human institutions” are prone to occasional errors.

In a lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that at Alligator Alcatraz, “detained people were told that they are only allowed one meal a day (and given only minutes to eat), are not permitted daily showers, and are otherwise kept around the clock in a cage inside a tent.”

In response, Guthrie dismissed space concerns, saying inmates have much more room than do people in state-run hurricane shelters.

Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a $117 billion budget proposal which he touted as a leaner spending plan than last year’s that still prioritizes pay increases for teachers and law enforcement officials.

“We’re still doing big things,” DeSantis said in Orlando as he released his 2026-27 fiscal year budget recommendations for his final year of office. “Florida has really led the way with fiscal responsibility.”

DeSantis’ priorities include $25 million for $5,000 recruitment bonuses for law enforcement officers, accelerating construction projects in congested areas, and $278 million for cancer research. The budget recommendations also set aside $118 million to max out the rainy-day fund and $1.4 billion for Everglades restoration projects, DeSantis said.

“What the budget does is it builds off the success that we’ve had,” DeSantis said. “This budget is entitled ‘Floridians First’ because that’s the focus of it. It’s putting our people first and making sure we’re good stewards.”

DeSantis’ press conference comes ahead of the start of the Legislative Session on Jan. 13. State lawmakers will ultimately approve the final budget, although DeSantis has line-item veto power.

For teacher raises, DeSantis is proposing $1.56 billion.

“We put our money where our mouth is. We did record funding for teacher pay increases for Florida. And this proposal today is the biggest by far,” DeSantis said.

The overall K-12 education $30.6 billion budget proposal includes $1.7 billion for early childhood education and would fully fund Bright Futures scholarships, which DeSantis said he is “a big believer in.”

DeSantis also wants to aside $20 million — a $14 million increase — for the Schools of Hope program to allow charter schools to take over traditional public schools with low enrollment.

Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas was booed earlier this month by school officials concerned about charter schools taking over their buildings rent-free. On Wednesday, Kamoutsas went on the offense alongside DeSantis at the podium.

“I know there’s been all kinds of false attacks that have been taking place,” Kamoutsas lamented. He blamed the media for trying to sell papers and said some School Board members care more about running for higher office.

DeSantis also downplayed criticism of Schools of Hope. “We’re not going into Windermere … (or) Palm Beach and do a school. They are going to the toughest areas that we have where a lot of people have given up on some of these students. … They’re going to areas where no one else wants to go.”

In his budget recommendations, DeSantis also proposed nearly $2 billion for the state’s public colleges and $4 billion for Florida public universities.

In addition, DeSantis wants to support transportation and infrastructure, with $15.4 billion for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and $14.3 billion for the transportation work program. DeSantis said a priority is FDOT speeding up construction projects, especially in Central Florida, which is infamous for the congested Interstate 4.

“You get down near Disney and ChampionsGate and Polk on I-4,” DeSantis said of the traffic backups. “It’s not just rush hour. It could happen at any time.”

The Governor’s Office did not immediately provide a copy of the full budget recommendations after the press conference.

DeSantis’ critics took aim and accused him of ignoring Floridians’ affordability struggles.

“When Ron DeSantis slinks out of office next year for his new career as a bottom-tier podcast host for Blaze Media, these last eight years will be remembered as the final act of the Florida Dream of an affordable paradise,” said DeSantis Watch Communications Director Anders Croy.

“This finale was written by a self-serving politician who consistently prioritized the increasing wealth of his corporate donors over the needs of working Floridians.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis is strongly advocating for the “Schools of Hope” model, which would co-locate charter schools in underused public school facilities.

And as DeSantis said in Orlando, the facilities primarily will cater to children whose parents aren’t doing as much as some others, in places most people wouldn’t even go, with tonier communities insulated from the concept.

“You’re really relieving burdens on the district, right? Because, you know, you’re creating a program where it is going to be targeted at … the least-advantaged students. And in areas where a lot of people say it’s not even worth trying,” DeSantis said.

It’s unclear which people are allegedly saying it’s not worth “trying” to educate some students but not others.

But worries that they will be in places like Windermere or Palm Beach are misplaced, DeSantis said.

“This is not going to be something where a school of hope is going to be coming in and descending on Palm Harbor or Destin or some of these places,” he said, singling out two wealthy communities where more than 80% of residents are White.

He reassured parents that these schools of hope won’t come in where “my Sally or my Johnny goes,” but instead would be in “some hard areas in Miami. Probably Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, probably Orlando, maybe Tampa, maybe Jacksonville.”

In these areas, DeSantis predicts the Schools of Hope will largely go unnoticed.

“I don’t think most Floridians are even going to know that there’s a school of hope. Because quite frankly, probably where they’re setting up, already a lot of Floridians aren’t spending a lot of time in some of these areas, but they’re going to go in,” DeSantis said.

Regardless of whether residents are aware of the schools, DeSantis made it clear his preferred vendor would be the Success Academies championed by arguably his leading political patron over the years, billionaire Ken Griffin.

Griffin has already pledged to devote $50 million to expanding the concept in Florida.

“It’s a difficult mission, but at least with Success Academy, you have an operator who’s been able to do some really, really great things,” DeSantis said.

He credits Success Academies with having “gone into the worst areas in terms of opportunity … the most at-risk … areas where no one else wants to go.”

Lots of vendors want into the taxpayer-subsidized space.

As of last month, 22 School Districts across the state have received at least 690 letters of intent from charter school operators, according to data gathered by the Florida Policy Institute, a member of the Florida Coalition for Thriving Public Schools.

School Districts reporting letters as of mid-November include Brevard, Broward, Collier, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties.

The letters, sent by privately operated charter school organizations, seek to occupy portions of public schools the state considers underutilized. Under provisions added to the 2025–26 state budget, “Hope operators” may move into those spaces at no cost, leaving districts to absorb maintenance, custodial and other operational expenses.

South Florida had received the most letters at last check, with at least 224 between Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Miami-Dade officials said the district received at least 180 letters, though only 90 were considered valid because many came from Bridge Prep Academy, which is not yet an approved Schools of Hope operator.

The impact also was obvious across the Tampa Bay region, where Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Manatee counties collectively show some of the highest concentrations of claims in the state. Together, the four districts account for more than 80 campuses and more than 46,000 requested seats, according to data compiled by the coalition.

Even as those letters go out, state lawmakers are already working to pull the plug on the program’s most controversial rule that allows charter school operators to move into “underused” public school buildings rent-free. SB 424, filed by Democratic Sen. Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg, would repeal that provision.

“By eliminating language requiring co-location in public schools, we are ensuring schools do not face the unintentional consequence of an unfunded mandate, and that students can continue thriving in their schools without losing access to spaces they need for academic success,” Rouson said in an earlier statement about the bill.

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A.G. Gancarski and Jesse Mendoza of Florida Politics contributed to this report.