WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — New questions emerge over whether the federal government will pay Florida back for more than $500 million spent on immigration enforcement, including the controversial detention facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz."
WPTV has been following this story since the immigration detention facility opened in the middle of the Everglades last summer.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the federal government would reimburse Florida for the facility, and that appeared to be the case in October when FEMA approved a $608 million grant for Florida.
However, we've been monitoring a federal court case in which the federal government appears to be creating an off-ramp. WPTV previously reported that Florida has yet to receive a dime of that grant money.
In a new filing on behalf of the federal government, they write that the "final federal funding decision… is still ongoing today" in part because "there were problems with the state's (grant) application."
The document goes on to say "FEMA may not reimburse FDEM for construction costs... and may ultimately disallow the requested costs altogether."
WPTV reached out to Gov. Ron DeSantis' office to see if he's on the same page as the federal government.
We were passed along to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, where a spokeswoman told me this is a standard reimbursement process for FEMA and that the grant was meant to cover immigration enforcement efforts beyond just detention facilities.
No one responded to my questions about the "problems" with Florida's grant application, so it's still not clear why Florida hasn't been reimbursed for Alligator Alcatraz.
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