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Pay-to-play politics in DeSantis’ immigration hellhole | Editorial
It was three years ago, and state Rep. Fentrice Driskell balked at handing a blank check to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In the 2022 session, lawmakers created a $500 million slush fund for DeSantis to use in an emergency, such as quickly providing post-hurricane aid.
But Driskell, a Democrat from Tampa, asked what if DeSantis could declare anything was an emergency?
What would then keep him from declaring immigration as an emergency and throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at it — money beyond the reach of legislative oversight?
What would that look like?
To DeSantis’ political donors cashing in on the Everglades immigration camp, it looks very, very good.
Millions in no-bid deals
The taxpayer-supported slush fund that Driskell warned us about is now paying for millions of dollars in no-bid state contracts, according to the independent Florida journalist Jason Garcia, including contracts benefiting DeSantis campaign contributors.
Carlos Duart and Tina Vidal-Duart and their companies showered $1.9 million on political action committees supporting DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida, the Miami Herald found.
With a partner, the couple’s CDR Maguire Inc. secured a no-bid $18 million contract to help build “Alligator Alcatraz,” Garcia wrote. Similarly, the founder of Gothams LLC, a company sharply criticized for its political donations and state contracts in Texas, gave $25,000 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2021 and $25,000 to DeSantis’ Empower Parents PAC in 2022.
It got a deal for tech services, according to the Herald. IRG Global Emergency Management’s trucks were spotted rumbling into the camp; the Florida Trident reported that the company is a spinoff of Access Restoration Services US Inc., which between 2022 and 2024 donated roughly $250,000 to a DeSantis PAC and the Republican Party of Florida.
It also snagged a $1.8 million state contract for “operational support services in support of migration efforts.”
One deal after another
Poor immigrants are locked away in horrifying conditions, and cronies of DeSantis get rich.
It’s not just state contracts. Other money supporting the camp is as murky as the swamp it sits on.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has repeatedly said DHS intends to pick up a chunk of the astonishing $450 million a year (or more) it will cost to keep the camp running.
Within days, though, DHS lawyers rapidly backtracked on committing one red dime. Hoping to fend off a lawsuit by environmental groups, DHS said no money had been committed.
Further, Florida had not asked for it. In fact, the money would come from a $600 million Federal Emergency Management Agency fund that, according to FEMA chief David Richardson’s court statements, isn’t yet finalized.
A very risky handshake
In short, this camp is being built on a “trust me” handshake with DHS.
That’s a risk, because Trump policies change with whiplash speed.
When Fox News moves on to another outrage and the grotesque Alligator Alcatraz T-shirt sales slow, will Noem still be eager to pour hundreds of millions into the hands of a governor who denied her request to be part of initial news coverage?
How would Noem even know whether FEMA money will still be there? After all, this is the same FEMA that the Trump administration intends to eliminate, possibly within the next six months.
Even if FEMA survives, and the DHS fund gets set up and Florida is awarded a large slice of the $600 million, the camp might not deliver.
Immigrant farmworkers overwhelmingly work in Florida fields and groves and would be expected to pack all those photo-op cages funded by DeSantis’ “emergency” money.
Latest media revelations
Changing course for the fourth time, though, the White House has hinted at shifting its approach to rounding up farmworkers, making it less likely they will fill up the camp.
Beyond dollars, the costs are already multiplying.
A handful of detainees told CBS News of inadequate water, lack of medical care, lights kept on 24 hours a day and mosquito infestation.
Furor over the camp is obscuring what else Trump plans for Florida.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 200 U.S. Marines to our state as a “first wave” military presence backing ICE. The military is only here to help with paperwork according to their orders. Really? Since when does it take a Marine to fill out forms?
Either this deployment is a waste of military manpower, or the Marines’ presence indicates a broader plan to fill detention camps. Either way, Floridians should expect to pay a price.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and the Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. Contact us at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
1 comment:
Yet if I open a bar, and offer a $100 cash prize for the winner of a card game, who knows what sort of endless punishments I'll receive. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands spent on trafficking in politicians. Also the rich buy presidents for billions of dollars. They pick two people and the whole population flips a coin. At least it's a "game of chance" right?
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