Florida Division of Emergency Management
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2026 Events (5)
DHS inspector general found Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' held detainees in outdoor cages mislabeled 'calming areas'
A Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report published September 11, 2026 found that Florida's now-closed "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Ochopee confined 79 detainees in small indoor and outdoor metal enclosures, roughly 4 feet by 4 feet and 16-18 square feet, that staff called "calming areas" -- for an average of about 59 minutes and up to nearly two hours between July 17, 2025 and January 18, 2026, with at least one documented case tied to a detainee's noncompliance with a lawful command rather than de-escalation. The report also found general-population housing providing as little as 28 square feet per detainee against Florida's 75-square-foot jail standard, food freezers held at 10-14°F, unsanitary drinking-water containers, showers limited to three times weekly amid insect infestation, and Special Management Unit detainees without operable phones or legal-material access. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had obligated $608.4 million to Florida for the facility, which operated under a state-federal 287(g) delegation and closed in June 2026.
Florida's Division of Emergency Management missed a statutory spending-report deadline by two months; state approved $490M more anyway
Florida's Division of Emergency Management missed a July 15, 2026 statutory deadline to give the Legislature a quarterly accounting of Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund spending, delivering the report nearly two months late on September 11 -- about an hour before the Joint Legislative Budget Commission convened in Tallahassee. Despite the delayed compliance, the commission voted along party lines to transfer $240 million in new funds into the account and authorize up to $250 million more for pending invoices tied to immigration enforcement and hurricane relief.
Florida's emergency-management division resisted a federal order for Alligator Alcatraz detainee legal phone access, calling it unfeasible
Florida's Division of Emergency Management asked a federal judge to pause a late-March 2026 preliminary injunction requiring at least one working phone per 25 detainees for confidential legal calls at the state's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration lockup in the Everglades, telling the court that adding phone service would be "entirely unfeasible" and cost roughly $180,000 up front plus $6,000 weekly. State records showed the Division had already spent about $34.2 million on technology, internet, communications, and surveillance at the facility, most of it to a single vendor. As of April 2, 2026 the site held 1,383 detainees.
Lawyer alleges GardaWorld guards beat, pepper-sprayed detainees at Florida's 'Alligator Alcatraz' facility
According to a sworn court declaration by attorney Katherine Blankenship, on April 2, 2026, guards employed by security contractor GardaWorld Federal Services allegedly beat and pepper-sprayed several detainees inside a locked cell at Florida's state-run "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in the Everglades. Blankenship's declaration alleges the guards retaliated after detainees complained that the facility's phones — their only means of confidential contact with counsel — were not working; one detainee was allegedly punched, thrown to the floor, kicked in the head, and restrained with a knee on his neck, while another detainee's wrist was broken.
Alligator Alcatraz guards Trejos and Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee during Jan. 25 transfer at Florida facility
On Jan. 25, 2026, Critical Response Strategies corrections officers Stephen Trejos and Andre Seenaraine allegedly battered detainee Rigoberto Rodriguez Arce, a Cuban national ICE had detained weeks earlier, during a chaotic detainee transfer at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility in Ochopee. A witness said Trejos slammed Rodriguez Arce to the ground and struck him after handcuffed detainees banged their cuffs on benches, and that Seenaraine later punched him in another room; Trejos's attorney says surveillance video instead shows a single "compliance strike" after Rodriguez Arce spat at him. Collier County prosecutors charged both officers with misdemeanor battery in June 2026, both pleaded not guilty, and the case became public in September 2026.