The tab for Florida's immigrant prison in the Everglades is $250 million — and counting

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Jul 20, 2025

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Homeland Security / Wikipedia Commons

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Florida taxpayers are on the hook for at least a quarter of a billion dollars in spending tied to the slapdash immigration detention facility the DeSantis administration opened this month in the middle of the Everglades.

And the public tab for the built-in-eight-days prison camp — where hundreds of immigrants, many without any criminal charges, are being locked up in group cages at a site popularly known by the sociopathic pseudonym, “Alligator Alcatraz” — keeps growing.

That’s according to a review of contracts and purchase orders connected to the project that have posted so far in a state database known as the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System, or FACTS. State agencies are required by law to post information about every purchase order they issue to the FACTS database — including electronic copies of contracts and procurement documents.

But an unusual development happened last week: DeSantis administration staffers suddenly pulled Alligator Alcatraz-related purchase records from the site — and then replaced them with scrubbed documents that don’t provide nearly as much detail.

So we’re going to use this week’s Florida in Five top story to quickly run through Alligator Alcatraz contracts we’ve found so far in the FACTS system — along with some of the records Gov. Ron DeSantis had removed.

But first a couple of quick notes:

The list that follows details vendors with contracts explicitly connected to Florida’s Everglades detention facility. But there are likely additional contracts missing from this list — and more agreements will surface in the coming days and weeks.

Some of these agreements have also been changed multiple times since they were posted — to add or remove work, for instance. So this list should be considered a snapshot in time.

And while we have linked to the most detailed purchasing documents we’ve found so far, in some cases the the original records are limited or unavailable.

With that fine print out of the way, here’s a current list of Alligator Alcatraz vendors and contracts:

Critical Response Strategies ($78.5 million)

The biggest Alligator Alcatraz contract, at least so far, is with Jacksonville-based Critical Response Strategies to staff and manage the prison camp. The DeSantis administration began removing records from the FACTS site shortly screenshots from this purchase order began appearing online — showing that taxpayers are paying some Alligator Alcatraz staffers as much as $187 an hour.

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Seeking Rents

The tab for Florida's immigrant prison in the Everglades is $250 million — and counting

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Critical Response Strategies ($78.5 million)

Longview International Technology Solutions ($25.6 million)

Gothams LLC ($24.5 million)

Doodie Calls ($22 million)

SLSCO Ltd. ($19.8 million)

Garner Environmental Services ($19.8 million)

Lemoine CDR Logistics ($18.3 million)

CDR Health Care ($17.5 million)

Meridian Rapid Defense Group ($11.9 million)

IRG Global Emergency Management ($5.2 million)

Granny’s Alliance Holdings ($3.4 million)

Public Safety Solutions MO ($900,000)

Selectrailers ($539,000)

Baker’s Communications ($500,000)

IEM International ($326,000)

Williams Communications ($293,000)

Will-Burt Integration and Elevation ($259,000)

CDW Government ($59,000)

Boise Schiller Flexner LLP ($50,000)

Motorola Solutions ($48,000)

WeatherSTEM ($25,000)

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