Florida has accumulated nearly 600 unpaid bills worth $417 million from immigration operations while committing at least $1.4 billion to contractors involved in state-run detention centers, according to a long-delayed report submitted to lawmakers shortly before they approved additional funding on Friday.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management reported 592 unpaid invoices from the last fiscal year, with about 90% of debts incurred through its emergency fund tied to immigration enforcement. The Miami Herald reported that the actual amount owed is likely higher because the accounting appears to predate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional contract commitments.
The report, due July 15, reached lawmakers about an hour before Friday's Legislative Budget Commission meeting. The Republican-controlled panel approved a $240 million transfer to the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund, including $187.8 million for immigration contracts whose services had already been provided. The vote was along party lines.
"This is not the way we should be spending Florida money. We need more legislative oversight, we need more transparency," Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman said, according to CBS News.
The emergency fund, created to allow the governor to respond quickly to disasters, has increasingly financed Florida's immigration enforcement efforts since Gov. Ron DeSantis declared immigration a state emergency in 2023. He has extended that declaration more than 20 times.
Among the largest outstanding bills identified by the state are $93 million owed to portable-toilet company Doodie Calls and $68 million to IRG Global Emergency Management, much of it related to the now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz detention facility. Updated contracts reviewed by the Herald, however, indicate IRG Global could be awaiting roughly $214 million.
The Herald independently calculated that Florida has spent more than $630 million on immigration operations over the past year and still owes about $760 million on contracts. The state has also received only $84.6 million of $608 million in promised federal reimbursements, leaving about $524 million outstanding.
Looking ahead, the emergency management division projects another $500 million in immigration spending during the current fiscal year. Its report warned the emergency fund could face a $1.5 billion deficit under a worst-case scenario that assumes two major hurricanes and other severe weather.
Republican budget chairman Sen. Ed Hooper said Florida maintains significant reserves for natural disasters but suggested legislative tolerance for the administration's spending approach was nearing an end.
"We have given him some leeway," Hooper said of DeSantis, "and I would just guess that the time for that leeway is coming to an end pretty rapidly."
