Forget about DOGE: Florida and U.S. go on a migrant crackdown spending spree | Opinion
In America today, we pump billions of dollars into arresting, detaining and deporting migrants, the majority of whom have no criminal convictions. We — taxpayers — spend millions in Florida to hastily build a tent structure in the middle of the Everglades, where, our president has suggested, alligators and snakes will take care of migrants who try to escape. To build such a facility, we use emergency powers declared and extended for dubious reasons to address “the large influx and number of illegal aliens” coming to the state, many looking for work we Americans are willing to give to them at construction sites, restaurants and farms.
These are our tax dollars at work, being spent on a counterproductive immigration crackdown orchestrated by the same leaders in Florida and Washington, D.C., who complain about government overspending.
They created DOGEs — first, a federal one, then a Florida version. They slashed humanitarian aid to other countries under the guise of America First. Yet, they cut money to help feed our own people who rely on food stamps, and then labeled that move as the One Big Beautiful Bill. They also took health care from Americans who need it the most, with 10 million expected to become uninsured thanks to Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
President Trump’s signature bill also gave ICE the largest budget of any law enforcement agency in the federal government, doubling its capacity to hold detained immigrants, CBS News reported. Meanwhile, the law also is expected to add $3.4 trillion to the federal budget deficit — partly because of extended tax cuts that help high earners the most. Yet, the same Republicans who say they want a leaner government signed off on it.
If Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis deported every single undocumented immigrant from the U.S. and Florida, that wouldn’t fix the state’s homeowners’ insurance crisis, lower housing prices or solve stubbornly high prices at the grocery store. In fact, the lack of migrant labor could make some of our problems worse, as Trump himself seemed to acknowledge when he floated the idea in June of protecting farmworkers, who are essential to our food supply, from immigration raids.
What else could Florida do with the $450 million that Alligator Alcatraz is expected to cost annually? Florida expects that money will be reimbursed by the federal government, but that’s still our tax dollars being spent with little oversight. The Trump administration has said each bed at the detention camp is expected to cost $245 a day, roughly the same price of one night at the Intercontinental Miami hotel, the Herald reported last week.
The DeSantis administration already has committed more than $200 million to private contractors at Alligator Alcatraz, according to the Herald. That’s what it has cost so far to assemble a small city in eight days and run it. It is an eye-popping amount when you consider the facility opened just a month ago, with early reports from detainees about giant bugs and toilets that did not flush.
What else could DeSantis accomplish if he applied the same political and financial will to other issues, such as the need for aggressive homeowners’ insurance reform and for more housing that’s affordable to middle and working class Floridians?
DeSantis, who’s using the Florida DOGE to probe spending by Broward County and other local governments, has proven less than frugal when it comes to his political priorities. Take the millions of dollars he spent in 2022 flying migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard just to prove a point to the Biden administration.
To be clear, former President Biden’s mishandling of the Southern border helped Trump convince Americans that anything goes when addressing illegal immigration. We’re paying a high price, both in tax dollars and in communities being torn apart.
This story was originally published July 31, 2025 at 1:21 PM.