'Alligator Alcatraz' Already Ballooning Over $600 Million, Leaked Document Shows

DHS is redirecting FEMA money to create a slush fund for ICE detention centers.

The Alligator Alcatraz detention center in the Florida Everglades. Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images

The federal detention facility in Florida, officially named “Alligator Alcatraz,” is only the beginning when it comes to FEMA money being used to fund ICE operations, according to a source within the federal agency. The new program, dubbed “the ICE grant” by FEMA employees, means that millions in grant funds intended for shelters and facilities for noncitizen migrants may now be redirected toward detention centers and whatever else ICE decides.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement to the Associated Press on June 25 that the detention facility in Florida “will be funded in large part by the Shelter and Services Program within the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” The Alligator Alcatraz facility will cost $245 per bed daily, or $450 million per year, one U.S. official told the Associated Press. Internal FEMA documents, however, put the total grant awarded to the Florida Division of Emergency Management at $608.4 million.

The flow of cash from FEMA’s SSP program to states building ICE detention centers outlined by Noem, matches what a source within FEMA told Drop Site of the ICE grant: “it appears they’re taking the money intended for the SSP that Congress mandated via their old appropriations bill to a new grant program related to ICE so they can pay states.” States will then use the funds to develop ICE detention centers similar to the Everglades facility in Florida.

The lack of funds available to respond to actual national disasters will be remedied by not doing anything. "We as a federal government don't manage these disasters. The state does,” Kristi Noem said this week.

There are few details available as to which states will receive FEMA funding for ICE operations, because, “this is so new that the grant program’s Notice of Funding Opportunity isn’t even finalized,” a source within FEMA told Drop Site.

Though FEMA is a part of DHS, using funding from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) to develop ICE detention centers is a major shift from the program’s intended purpose. SSP exists to provide “financial support to non-federal entities to provide sheltering and related activities to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” according to the official SSP website, accessed April 22, 2025. The webpage is currently inaccessible.

The facility is located 45 miles west of Miami at a remote airfield in the Florida everglades with a 10,500-foot runway. In a video posted on X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said of the new ICE detention center, “You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People can get out and there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons; nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.” Uthmeier also posted on X Wednesday, July 2, saying the facility is now open: “Alligator Alcatraz will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight. Next stop: back to where they came from.” He also told the Associated Press they plan to have “5,000 immigration detention beds by early July.”

In the 2024 fiscal year, SSP was funded to the tune of $650 million. But the Shelter and Services Program was not funded in fiscal year 2025, after Congress nixed FEMA money that might benefit undocumented people. According to the DHS overview of FEMA’s 2025 budget, SSP has only $83.5 million unallocated funds remaining through September 30.

However, a DOGE employee, identified by Drop Site News in February as Kyle Schutt, asked about deobligating funds sent to grantees in February. If DOGE were to follow through on deobligating funds, in order for DHS to reroute them from shelters to detention centers, it would likely require the cooperation of the U.S. Treasury Department to put the funds back in the SSP account(s).

Once funds are appropriated to a federal agency by Congress, we reported back in February, the only way to get the money back is to go through the Treasury, sources within FEMA told Drop Site at the time. It would be possible to deobligate funds sent to grantees, have Treasury send the funds to SSP, and have DHS send the funds to develop detention centers instead of shelters with the money.

And even if much of the $650 million from the 2024 fiscal year are already committed to grantees, they might be rerouted. DHS has a tight grip on all dollars going out the door from the federal government to states. Kristi Noem will review all grants or contracts “in excess of $100,000 according to a memo from Secretary Noem for “Component Heads” from June 11, 2025 obtained by Drop Site. The full memo reads:

Effective immediately, prior to the Department incurring obligations for any grant or contract award in excess of $100,000, I will review and consider any and all such proposals to obligate the agency for expenditures over $100,000. All proposals for my consideration must include all relevant details, including any mission impact, dollar values, description of the supplies or services, any timeliness issues, and a description of the proposed action.

Requests for approval of obligations above the $100,000 threshold must be submitted via memo through the Executive Secretary process. As with any request for Secretarial approval, please allow a minimum of 5 days for Front Office review.

This memo supersedes all previous guidance on spending, including my May 15, 2025 memo and modifies the Deputy Secretary's March 21, 2025, guidance concerning approval of contracts and grant awards in excess of $25 million. All other elements of the Deputy Secretary's March 21, 2025, guidance remain in effect.

Drop Site has reached out to FEMA for official comment, but has yet to hear back.