A Dedicated FEMA Fund Will Pay for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Q: Are FEMA funds being utilized to conception an migrant detention installation successful the Everglades?

A: Yes, the migrant detention installation successful Florida, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” is being “funded largely” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. The backing does not travel from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.

FULL ANSWER

An migration detention halfway has been constructed and was expected to unfastened this week connected an airfield successful the Everglades, astir 45 miles westbound of Miami, Florida, to location arsenic galore arsenic 5,000 detainees earlier deportation. State officials dubbed the installation “Alligator Alcatraz” due to the fact that the surrounding swampy country is inhabited by alligators, pythons and mosquitoes, and its isolation is reminiscent of the infamous, erstwhile national situation connected an land successful San Francisco Bay.

We received respective emails from readers asking astir the installation and whether it was being funded by FEMA.

The archetypal $450 cardinal needed to make and run the detention halfway successful its archetypal twelvemonth was provided by the authorities of Florida, WINK News reported. The authorities volition question reimbursement done FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, not the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, which supports betterment efforts associated with large disasters and emergencies. As we’ve written, the Disaster Relief Fund receives abstracted backing from Congress.

The Shelter and Services Program was approved by Congress and created successful 2023 nether the Biden medication “to alleviate overcrowding successful short-term [Customs and Border Protection] holding facilities and enactment non-federal entities with structure and related activities for noncitizens released from [Department of Homeland Security] custody and awaiting their migration tribunal proceedings,” a 2024 DHS study explained.

But DHS Secretary Noem said the intent of that FEMA programme has shifted.

Noem said successful an Instagram post connected July 1, the time she toured the installation with President Donald Trump, “Alligator Alcatraz volition beryllium funded mostly by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which the Biden medication utilized arsenic a piggy slope to walk hundreds of millions of American payer dollars to location amerciable aliens … Before this programme was utilized to location transgression amerciable aliens. Now, it is being utilized to detain transgression amerciable aliens portion they await deportation.”

Asked astir the backing for the detention center, a FEMA spokesperson told america successful an email, “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are moving astatine turbo velocity connected cost-effective and innovative ways to present connected the American people’s mandate for wide deportations of transgression amerciable aliens. We volition grow facilities and furniture abstraction successful conscionable days, acknowledgment to our concern with Florida.” 

The Trump medication antecedently objected to national backing to assistance and location migrants, and successful February it clawed backmost $80 cardinal from New York City that FEMA had transferred for that intent nether the Shelter and Services Program. Trump falsely claimed successful 2024 that the Biden medication redirected and depleted FEMA funds intended for catastrophe alleviation to structure and assistance migrants, as we’ve written.

During the circuit of the Florida installation connected July 1, Trump said, “We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the lone mode retired is, really, deportation,” the Associated Press reported. “This is an astonishing happening that they’ve done here,” Trump said.

The detention halfway consists of tents, trailers and impermanent buildings, with rows of bunk beds surrounded by chain-link fencing, the AP reported. Officials told the AP that detainees volition person entree to aesculapian care, aerial conditioning and a recreation yard, and volition person “support from attorneys and members of the clergy.”

There person been escapes astatine migration detention facilities successful the past. Three men escaped from a installation successful Colorado successful 2019 and were recaptured days later, according to a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Four men escaped June 12 from a detention installation successful Newark, New Jersey, and 3 had been caught by June 17, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

ICE is presently holding astir 59,000 radical successful detention facilities crossed the country, CBS News reported.

We reached retired to DHS for accusation astir information and the frequence of escapes astatine migrant detention facilities, but we didn’t person a response.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not judge advertising. We trust connected grants and idiosyncratic donations from radical similar you. Please see a donation. Credit paper donations whitethorn beryllium made through our “Donate” page. If you similar to springiness by check, nonstop to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102. 

The station A Dedicated FEMA Fund Will Pay for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ appeared archetypal connected FactCheck.org.