Timeline Of Confusion: A Look At FL's Cost Projections For ‘Alligator Alcatraz,' ‘Deportation Depot'

By Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix

March 3, 2026

For months, the price tag for the Everglades immigrant detention center the DeSantis administration calls “Alligator Alcatraz,” was left to media speculation.

Confusion abounded as various reports estimated the facility could cost anywhere between $245 million and $450 million for the year. But analysts weren’t the only ones drawing conjectures.

So were the emergency managers operating the center.

According to nearly 3,000 pages of records reviewed by the Phoenix, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM) drastically adjusted its calculations at least five times between June and November 2025.

Each calculation came out higher than the last.

Here’s a timeline from June to December of what DEM believed the “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” migrant detention facilities would cost, and how the agency arrived at those numbers:

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