Florida officialsā plan to use a $608 million federal reimbursement to pay for the so-called āAlligator Alcatrazā lockup wonāt cover constru
DOJ: Trump administration wonāt pay for āAlligator Alcatrazā construction costs
Federal lawyers say any reimbursement ā if it comes ā would cover only operational costs.
BY: LIV CAPUTO
FEBRUARY 25, 2026
6:12 PM
A $608 million federal reimbursement that Floridaās been counting on to pay for the so-called āAlligator Alcatrazā lockup wonāt cover construction costs ā if the money comes through at all, Justice Department lawyers have declared.
Instead, any potential dollars would only fund āoperational costs,ā not āconstruction or facility modification,ā the DOJ said in a new federal court filing posted Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement may not even āmaterializeā at all, Attorney General James Uthmeier acknowledged in a separate filing.
This breaks from past assertions from both President Donald Trump and the DeSantis administration that the $608 million grant would largely foot the bill for Floridaās state-run detention centers.











