Emails show DeSantis administration blindsided county officials with plans for 'Alligator Alcatraz'
The emails show that local officials in southwest Florida were still trying to chase down a 'rumor' about the sprawling 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility planned for their county while state officials were already on the ground and sending vendors through the gates to coordinate construction of the detention center, which was designed to house thousands of migrants and went up in a matter of days.
'Not cool!' one local official told the state agency director spearheading the construction.
The 100-plus emails dated June 21 to July 1, obtained through a public records request, underscore the breakneck speed at which the governor's team built the facility and the extent to which local officials were blindsided by the plans for the compound of makeshift tents and trailers in Collier County, a wealthy, majority-Republican corner of the state that's home to white-sand beaches and the western stretch of the Everglades.
The executive order, originally signed by the Republican governor in 2023 and extended since then, accelerated the project, allowing the state to seize county-owned land and evade rules in what critics have called an abuse of power. The order granted the state sweeping authority to suspend 'any statute, rule or order' seen as slowing the response to the immigration 'emergency.'
A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, the airstrip is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami. It is located within Collier County but is owned and managed by neighboring Miami-Dade County. The AP asked for similar records from Miami-Dade County, where officials said they are still processing the request.
To DeSantis and other state officials, building the facility in the remote Everglades and naming it after a notorious federal prison were meant as deterrents. It's another sign of how President Donald Trump's administration and his allies are relying on scare tactics to pressure people who are in the country illegally to leave.
Detention center in the Everglades? 'Never heard of that'
Collier County Commissioner Rick LoCastro apparently first heard about the proposal after a concerned resident in another county sent him an email on June 21.
'A citizen is asking about a proposed 'detention center' in the Everglades?' LoCastro wrote to County Manager Amy Patterson and other staff. 'Never heard of that … Am I missing something?'
'I am unaware of any land use petitions that are proposing a detention center in the Everglades. I'll check with my intake team, but I don't believe any such proposal has been received by Zoning,' replied the county's planning and zoning director, Michael Bosi.
Environmental groups have since filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the state illegally bypassed federal and state laws and county zoning rules in building the facility. The complaint alleges that the detention center went up "without legislative authority, environmental review or compliance with local land use requirements.'
In fact, LoCastro was included on a June 21 email from state officials announcing their intention to buy the airfield. LoCastro sits on the county's governing board but does not lead it, and his district does not include the airstrip. He forwarded the message to the county attorney, saying 'Not sure why they would send this to me?'
In the email, Kevin Guthrie, the head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which built the detention center, said the state intended to 'work collaboratively' with the counties. The message referenced the executive order on illegal immigration, but it did not specify how the state wanted to use the site, other than for 'future emergency response, aviation logistics, and staging operations.'
The next day, Collier County's emergency management director, Dan Summers, wrote up a briefing for the county manager and other local officials, including some notes about the 'rumor' he had heard about plans for an immigration detention facility at the airfield.
Summers knew the place well, he said, after doing a detailed site survey a few years ago.
'The infrastructure is — well, nothing much but a few equipment barns and a mobile home office … (wet and mosquito-infested)," Summers wrote.
FDEM told Summers that while the agency had surveyed the airstrip, 'NO mobilization or action plans are being executed at this time' and all activity was 'investigatory," Summers wrote.
Emergency director said lack of information was 'not cool'
By June 23, Summers was racing to prepare a presentation for a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners the next day. He shot off an email to FDEM Director Kevin Guthrie seeking confirmation of basic facts about the airfield and the plans for the detention facility, which Summers understood to be 'conceptual' and in 'discussion or investigatory stages only.'
'Is it in the plans or is there an actual operation set to open?' Summers asked. 'Rumor is operational today… ???'
In fact, the agency was already 'on site with our vendors coordinating the construction of the site," FDEM bureau chief Ian Guidicelli responded.
'Not cool! That's not what was relayed to me last week or over the weekend,' Summers responded, adding that he would have 'egg on my face' with the Collier County Sheriff's Office and Board of County Commissioners. "It's a Collier County site. I am on your team, how about the courtesy of some coordination?'
On the evening of June 23, FDEM officially notified Miami-Dade County it was seizing the county-owned land to build the detention center, under emergency powers granted by the executive order.
Plans for the facility sparked concerns among first responders in Collier County, who questioned which agency would be responsible if an emergency should strike the site.
Discussions on the issue grew tense at times. Local Fire Chief Chris Wolfe wrote to the county's chief of emergency medical services and other officials on June 25: "I am not attempting to argue with you, more simply seeking how we are going to prepare for this that is clearly within the jurisdiction of Collier County."
'Not our circus, not our monkeys'
Summers, the emergency management director, repeatedly reached out to FDEM for guidance, trying to 'eliminate some of the confusion' around the site.
As he and other county officials waited for details from Tallahassee, they turned to local news outlets for information, sharing links to stories among themselves.
'Keep them coming,' Summers wrote to county Communications Director John Mullins in response to one news article, 'since its crickets from Tally at this point.'
Hoping to manage any blowback to the county's tourism industry, local officials kept close tabs on media coverage of the facility, watching as the news spread rapidly from local newspapers in southwest Florida to national outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times and international news sites as far away as Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland.
As questions from reporters and complaints from concerned residents streamed in, local officials lined up legal documentation to show the airfield was not their responsibility.
In an email chain labeled, 'Not our circus, not our monkeys...,' County Attorney Jeffrey Klatzkow wrote to the county manager, 'My view is we have no interest in this airport parcel, which was acquired by eminent domain by Dade County in 1968.'
Meanwhile, construction at the site plowed ahead, with trucks arriving around the clock carrying portable toilets, asphalt and construction materials. Among the companies that snagged multimillion dollar contracts for the work were those whose owners donated generously to political committees supporting DeSantis and other Republicans.
On July 1, just 10 days after Collier County first got wind of the plans, the state officially opened the facility, welcoming DeSantis, Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other state and federal officials for a tour.
A county emergency management staffer fired off an email to Summers, asking to be included on any site visit to the facility.
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
a few seconds ago
- Associated Press
Far beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam
Ken Beckley never went to Harvard, but he has been wearing a crimson Harvard cap in a show of solidarity. As he sees it, the Trump administration's attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his own alma mater, Indiana University. Beckley, a former head of the school's alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University's Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements. No government effort to influence a university — private or public — has gotten more attention than the clash at Harvard, where the Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding as it seeks a series of policy changes. But far beyond the Ivy League, Republican officials are targeting public universities in several states with efforts seeking similar ends. 'What's happened nationally is now affecting Indiana,' said Beckley, who bought Harvard caps in bulk and passes them out to friends. Officials in conservative states took aim at higher education before President Donald Trump began his second term, driven in part by the belief that colleges are out of touch — too liberal and loading up students with too much debt. The first efforts focused on critical race theory, an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation's institutions, and then on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Since Trump took office, officials in states including Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Idaho increasingly have focused on university governance — rules for who picks university presidents and boards and how much control they exert over curriculums and faculty tenure. As at Harvard, which Trump has decried as overly influenced by liberal thinking, those state officials have sought to reduce the power of faculty members and students. 'They've realized that they can take a bit of a step further, that they can advance their policy priorities through those levers they have through the state university system,' said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow who studies higher education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. State officials push for more conservative leadership In Indiana, Braun said he picked new trustees who will guide the school 'back in the right direction.' They include an anti-abortion attorney and a former ESPN host who was disciplined because she criticized the company's policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Braun's administration has ramped up scrutiny of hiring practices at colleges statewide. Indiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, has sent letters to the University of Notre Dame, Butler University and DePauw University questioning the legality of their DEI programs. Butler, a private, liberal arts school in Indianapolis, was founded by an abolitionist in the decade leading up to the Civil War and admitted women and students of color from the start. 'I hope that Butler will uphold the standards they were founded on,' said Edyn Curry, president of Butler's Black Student Union. In Florida, the state university system board in June rejected longtime academic Santa Ono for the presidency at the University of Florida, despite a unanimous vote of approval by the school's own Board of Trustees. The unprecedented reversal followed criticism from conservatives about Ono's past support for DEI programs. That followed the conservative makeover of New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school once known as the state's most progressive. After Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed a group of conservatives to its governing board, many faculty left, including Amy Reid, who now manages a team focused on higher education at the free-expression group PEN America. 'When our students started organizing at New College, one of their slogans was 'Your Campus is Next,'' said Reid, who saw the gender studies program she directed defunded and then cut. 'So no, we're not surprised when you see other states redefining what can be in a general education class, because we've seen it happen already.' Changes have met limited resistance The changes at several public universities are proceeding without battles of the kind seen at Harvard. In a standoff seen widely as a test of private universities' independence, Harvard has filed lawsuits against the administration's moves to cut its federal funding and block its ability to host international students. In Iowa, new DEI restrictions are taking effect in July for community colleges. And the board that governs the state's three public universities is weighing doing something similar to Idaho, where a new law imposes restrictions on requiring students to take DEI-related courses to meet graduation requirements. Historically, the Iowa board has been focused on big-picture issues like setting tuition rates and approving degree programs. Now, there's a perceived sense that faculty should not be solely responsible for academic matters and that the trustees should play a more active role, said Joseph Yockey, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law and the former president of Iowa's faculty senate. 'What we started to see more recently is trustees losing confidence,' Yockey said. A new law in Ohio bans DEI programs at public colleges and universities and also strips faculty of certain collective bargaining rights and tenure protections. There are few guardrails limiting how far oversight boards can change public institutions, said Isabel McMullen, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin who researches higher education. 'For a board that really does want to wreak havoc on an institution and overthrow a bunch of different programs, I think if a board is interested in doing that, I don't really see what's stopping them aside from students and faculty really organizing against it,' McMullen said. Defenders of academic freedom see threats on several fronts The initiatives on state and federal levels have led to widespread concerns about an erosion of college's independence from politics, said Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors. 'They have to not only face an attack from the state legislature, but also from the federal government as well,' said Kamola, who is also a professor of political science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a pair of bills in June that impose new limits on student protests and give gubernatorial-appointed boards that oversee the state's universities new powers to control the curriculum and eliminate degree programs. Cameron Samuels, executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, an advocacy group, said politicians in the state are taking control of universities to dictate what is acceptable. 'When someone controls the dissemination of ideas, that is a really dangerous sign for the future of democracy,' Samuels said. The 21-year-old who is transgender and nonbinary went to college in Massachusetts and got into Harvard for graduate school, but as the Trump administration began targeting the institution, he instead chose to return to his home state and attend the University of Texas in Austin. 'I at least knew what to expect,' he said. ____ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Trump escalates attacks on Obama and Clinton as questions swirl about Epstein
'Obama was trying to lead a coup,' Trump said. 'And it was with Hillary Clinton.' Trump's extended digression, which came during a visit with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines, was a stark example of his campaign of retribution against an ever-growing list of enemies that has little analogue in American history. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It even prompted a rare response from Obama's office. Advertisement 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for Obama. 'Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.' After Trump's attack on Obama, reports continued to surface about his relationship with Epstein. CNN published photos of Epstein at Trump's 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, the president's second wife. Gabbard's report, which claimed there was a 'treasonous conspiracy' by top Obama officials, contradicted a lengthy study by the Senate Intelligence Committee that was signed by all Republican members of the committee, including Marco Rubio, now the secretary of state. Advertisement The Obama administration never contended that the Russians had manipulated votes; instead, the administration, and the Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, concluded that Russia mounted a major effort to influence voters. Still, in his remarks Tuesday, Trump claimed that he could have sent Clinton, the former secretary of state and another of his political rivals, to prison but chose not to. He said he would show no such leniency to Obama. 'I let her off the hook, and I'm very happy I did, but it's time to start after what they did to me,' Trump said. 'Whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama's been caught directly.' The president then listed even more enemies he wanted his Justice Department to target, including his former FBI director, James Comey and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and former President Joe Biden. 'It would be President Obama,' Trump said. 'He started it, and Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there.' 'He's guilty,' he said of Obama. 'This was treason. This was every word you can think of.' Trump's campaign to exact revenge against his perceived enemies has taken many forms. Over the past six months, he has pulled protective details from former colleagues facing death threats from Iran. He has revoked or threatened to revoke the security clearances of Biden, members of his administration and dozens of others. His administration has taken steps to target members of the media seen as unfriendly, taken the hatchet to entire agencies perceived as too liberal, and fired or investigated government workers deemed disloyal. Advertisement The re-examination of the intelligence around the 2016 election began with John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, ordering a review of the agency's tradecraft that went into the intelligence community assessment in December of that year. The review was deeply critical of the Obama administration and the former CIA director, John Brennan. CIA analysts took issue with the speed of the assessment and accused Brennan of allowing an unverified dossier prepared by a former British intelligence officer to influence the assessment. But Brennan has long denied that the so-called Steele dossier had any impact on the assessment, and other former officials said that the analysts working on the report paid no attention to it, maintaining that it was unverifiable rumor. Ratcliffe wrote on social media that the review had shown that the process was corrupt, and then he made a criminal referral to the FBI. Last week, Gabbard issued another report that criticized the findings of the intelligence assessment even more directly. Gabbard's report suggested that in the winter of 2016, intelligence officials under pressure from the White House changed their assessment from one that Russia had failed to mount a significant effort to hack election infrastructure to one that the Kremlin was trying to boost Trump and denigrate Clinton, the Democratic nominee. But Gabbard's report conflated two different intelligence findings. Intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had not engaged in any major effort to hack election systems and change votes. But they also believed that Russia had tried to influence the election in various ways by releasing hacked documents to harm Clinton and sow dissent. Advertisement Gabbard has also called for several Obama officials to face criminal investigation, without naming them. This article originally appeared in
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Florida's DOGE kicks off with audit of Broward County spending, Gov. DeSantis says
Cities, counties and law enforcement agencies across Florida will now undergo state audits, with Broward County being up first, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday morning in Fort Lauderdale alongside the state's newly sworn-in Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia. DeSantis said reviews by his Office of Policy and Budget and Ingoglia's Department of Financial Services will focus on governments that have "refused" to comply with state "Department of Government Efficiency" efforts, which were announced in February. The reviews also are tied to DeSantis' effort to get the Legislature to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot to lower property taxes. State auditors will be in Broward County and Gainesville starting July 31, DeSantis said. The two local governments were advised Monday night about the announcement. According to the Florida governor, Broward local government spending just doesn't add up. "Their county government has increased property tax burdens by the tune of $450 million, in addition to ad valorem collections, that's an increase of close to 50% just since 2020, but yet the population of Broward has barely grown at all, less than 5%," he said. The governor said the county is spending as if the money belongs to someone else. "I think it was, was it $800,000 for the Rose Bowl? They did a float in the Rose Bowl. The county administrator here makes almost half a million dollars a year. So there's a lot of things that really deserve scrutiny," he said. DeSantis said Broward is among communities that have drawn complaints since the state announced its DOGE efforts, with others being in places such as Hillsborough County, Manatee County, Northeast Florida and South Florida. "In particular, there's a couple sheriff's departments across the state that people find concerns about," DeSantis said. "I find it interesting that the two counties he chosen to audit first are two bright blue counties, but I'm sure that's merely a coincidence," said Geller. He said the state's numbers are off and explained that a large amount of money goes toward the airport, seaport and public safety. Geller also said recently passed legislation is also causing Broward to spend more. "They passed a law saying if there's homeless people, you have to remove them, but they didn't give us any money to do that; the county's having to do that. So, the legislature keeps passing laws that are costing us money and then complaining that we have to spend money!" "We've given them everything they've asked for. They said, 'Well, you didn't pass a resolution telling us you support DOGE.' I don't support it. I'm not grateful they're planning on giving the county a colonoscopy, but we will follow the law." Ingoglia, who was sworn-in as CFO on Monday, said they're going to begin auditing municipalities and agencies with a team on the ground and using artificial intelligence. If the municipalities and agencies don't comply, DeSantis said not only will the state withhold funding, there will also be fines. "For example, if we send a letter to a city and say, you know, provide us information on these 100 things, and they don't do it, then each individual item would be a daily fine of $1,000, so that'd be $100,000 a day," he said. The governor said they are starting with areas where they've gotten a lot of complaints and little compliance. So where does Miami-Dade County stand? "I don't think they fully got on board, but we do have some of the commissioners that are helping on that. So I would say that they've been better than some, but not good enough. So, I think it's very possible that you'll see an announcement on Miami-Dade within the next couple weeks," DeSantis said. DeSantis said Ingoglia, a former state congressman who was sworn in as CFO on Monday, will make his top priority auditing local government spending. In addition to local government audits, Ingoglia said he will focus on ensuring insurance companies follow requirements. "If they're slowing stuff, we're going to have conversations with them," Ingoglia said. "I'm not going to sit back. I'm not going to allow anyone to game the system, whether it is on one side or the other side, whether it is trial attorneys gaming the system or insurance companies gaming the system." Critics have accused some property insurers of not properly paying claims and have raised questions about carriers sending money to shareholders and affiliated companies while seeking rate increases. In his remarks during Monday's ceremony, Ingoglia called the appointment to the Cabinet post an "honor that has been bestowed upon me." This report includes information from the News Service of Florida.
