FL has suspended 25 rules using DeSantis’ yearslong immigration state of emergency
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to re-up his 2023 immigration state of emergency for the 19th time this week, extending his expanded scope of powers into their fourth calendar year and continuing to skirt more than two dozen state laws and regulations.
Over the past three years, Florida’s Division of Emergency Management has suspended 25 statutes and rules using the immigration state of emergency justification, according to a review by the Miami Herald.
The Herald identified each of the 25 provisions by going through lists of suspended laws within seven emergency orders issued by the Division of Emergency Management since January 2023 in connection to DeSantis’ immigration state of emergency. Those legal loopholes remain in effect for as long as DeSantis extends his emergency declaration.
The bypassed laws include requirements for competitive bidding, oversight of excessive spending, proper licensing, public transparency laws and safety restrictions.
The current state of emergency was set to expire this Saturday. DeSantis’ team said he plans to continue extending the emergency declaration indefinitely.
“It will continue to be an emergency until every illegal alien is sent back,” DeSantis’ communications director, Alex Lanfranconi, said in response to questions from the Herald.
Some of the laws and rules the state will be able to keep circumventing include:
- A law requiring those who select contractors to put in writing that they have no conflict of interest in the companies they select for services
- Certain background check requirements for people working as corrections officers
- Rules requiring public announcements of government agency purchases
- Competitive negotiation requirements to ensure selected contractors are the most qualified option
- Requirements to post contract bids online so that potential vendors can apply
- Additional competitive bidding requirements for contracts over $35,000
- Requirements that state-contracted air ambulances meet basic life support standards
- Mandatory oversight teams for contracts over $5 million
- Permitting requirements for portable restrooms
- And a rule blocking senior managers from charging taxpayers overtime pay
Nowhere has the ability to skirt those laws been more explicit than in the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center in the Everglades, which has been constructed, funded and operated through emergency contracts, including to politically connected companies.
At least three of the state contractors involved in Alligator Alcatraz have given money to DeSantis or the state’s Republican Party, according to Herald/Times reporting.
Democratic state lawmakers have urged DeSantis to end the state of emergency, including in a July letter asking him to redirect resources to hurricanes and other natural disaster responses. Democratic state representative and Orlando mayoral candidate Anna Eskamani said they did not get a response to that letter.
“The fact that the governor can suspend laws that he wants and spend public money in ways that are not actually addressing legitimate emergencies that people are facing, like the affordability crisis, speaks to how he’s abused his position of power,” Eskamani said.
She said the Florida Legislature has taken a few steps to increase oversight over the governor’s emergency spending. A new provision takes effect in January, for example, that requires the Division of Emergency Management to file annual reports to the Legislature detailing its use of emergency funds. But state Republicans have been hesitant to criticize the governor’s use of emergency power on immigration enforcement.
“It’s historically been conservatives who always argue for small governments,” Eskamani added. “We don’t see that same type of concern when it’s the White House under Trump or the governor’s office under DeSantis doing the same thing.”
Gubernatorial candidate and former House speaker Paul Renner, a Republican, has said he’s hoping to change Florida law granting governors such a wide scope of power by declaring emergencies — though he wouldn’t criticize the yearslong state of emergency on immigration.
“Where I think there needs to be some reform is in the statute,” he said in September. “I think there’s some potential for mischief if someone were to declare a climate emergency or a gun-crisis emergency, you can’t just name an emergency and make it so.”
With the 19th extension expected this week, DeSantis’s expansive use of emergency power will stretch into 2026, making a tool historically used primarily for natural disasters a defining feature of his second term.
DeSantis declared the immigration state of emergency — citing Joe Biden’s presidency and referencing Southwest border crossing numbers — just three days after being sworn in for his second term in 2023.
He’s extended the declaration in 60-day periods every two months since then, even though Biden is no longer president and border crossings have hit historic lows.
This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 11:05 AM.
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