DeSantis ensuring the immigration dragnet lines allies’ pockets

“Cruelty is … a symptom of insecurity, fear, and inner fragility rather than strength.” — Seneca

A cancer is hollowing out the soul of Florida.

The jagged edges of this mortal infection are most visible in Gov. Ron DeSantis, his MAGA allies, shapers and enforcers of policy, and others for whom human life, decency, and integrity no longer carry value.

The disease, in this case racial bias and xenophobia, is accompanied by bouts of ruthlessness, spite, and casual brutality with the effects most clearly evident in the way the DeSantis administration seeks to handle the immigration “crisis” in the state.

“The Free State of Florida” sits at the nexus of America’s latest reign of terror, with its anti-immigration dragnets; expansion of detention centers, holding facilities, and warehouses; the weaponizing of ICE agents and local law enforcement to racially profile and harass Black and brown people; and the arrest, so far, of 10,000 undocumented and legal immigrants.

For immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for decades, watching the Trump administration deploy a masked, secretive force to unlawfully kidnap, detain, and deport undocumented and legal migrants and U.S. citizens is intimidating and infuriating. DeSantis has created his own enforcement infrastructure in Florida.

Immigrants, like me, watching this dystopian drama play out, have little choice but to accept that everything we were taught about the inalienable constitutional freedoms and protections for all Americans has been an illusion.

Republicans in Congress recently rammed through a bill that directs $165 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, including $75 billion in new Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding, making ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the country. The Trump administration says it intends to deport 1 million people each year, expand detention capacity to 100,000 beds, and hire and pay for 10,000 new agents.

Squalid conditions

Floridians and other Americans have watched as craven, humorless MAGA men and women have constructed a network of detention centers to hold primarily Black and brown human beings snatched off the streets, stolen from their homes, and dragged out of their vehicles, then disappeared, assaulted, and mistreated before being forcibly removed from the country.

Migrants have been seized and taken into custody while going into and leaving church; taking their children to school; going to courthouses for immigration hearings; while working behind store counters; while building roofs and erecting homes; tending flowers and watering gardens; journalists reporting on the inhumane treatment; lawyers trying to protect clients; and laborers waiting at Home Depot trying to secure day work.

The conditions in which these migrants are held have been described by Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other civil and immigrant rights organization as hellish.

In one center, researchers said each pod holds 60 to 70 people who report chronic food shortages, with meals sufficient for only about 50 individuals. People are forced to ration food, skip meals, or take turns eating — and when food is available, it is often spoiled or partially frozen, causing widespread vomiting, diarrhea, and rapid weight loss.

Basic hygiene supplies are scarce, they said, with pods receiving only a handful of rolls of toilet paper, and people going days without soap, clean clothing, or access to functioning showers. Detainees describe tents and bathrooms flooded with foul water mixed with urine and feces, creating squalid and unsafe living conditions. In addition, they said, “access to medical care is equally alarming. Individuals with serious conditions report going days or weeks without prescribed medication or having medical requests ignored until someone collapses.

And, according to Human Rights Watch, researchers who gathered information on three Florida detention centers found detainees were exposed to “dangerously substandard medical care, overcrowding, abusive treatment, and restrictions on access to legal and psychosocial support.” Detainees report that they were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors without bedding, given substandard food, in many instances had their medical requirements ignored, while some officers treated detainees in dehumanizing ways.

Friends and family

It is clear by statements that none of these people who purport to represent and serve the public give a damn about due process, the rule of law, or simple human decency. DeSantis, Donald Trump, and MAGA Republicans have tossed away any pretense about adhering to democracy, the Constitution, or the ideas of fairness, justice, and equality.

They have shown themselves to be bitter enemies of a multiracial, multicultural, pluralist society but they have managed to convince a good chunk of the electorate that they are acting in the interest of justice. They cosplay being tough on crime, but they have gamed the system — legal and otherwise — to reward wealthy and politically connected friends and family, while punishing regular folk for even the smallest infraction or transgression. Meanwhile, those in the upper echelons of Florida society believe it is their birthright to loot and pillage the public treasury.

DeSantis has so far spent $573 million on immigration enforcement and the expected recouping from the federal government may not happen.

Shortly after announcing plans to erect the detention camp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” last year, DeSantis, after using an executive order to declare an “illegal immigration emergency,” in 2023 awarded close to two dozen contracts in excess of $245 million of taxpayer money to companies tasked with building and managing the tent encampment. The EO gave the state “sweeping authority to suspend ‘any statute, rule or order’ that might slow the response to the emergency, including open bidding requirements. Since 2023, the DeSantis administration has extended his executive order 20 times.

‘Built for headlines’

Watchdogs, Indigenous leaders, journalists, and others have gone to court to fight implementation, citing the environmental harm. Environmental and government watchdogs have raised questions about the contracts and companies behind them, especially after the state removed documents detailing deliverables and line-item spending from the state’s website. What shows are one-page invoices with the names of the companies, how much they’re charging, the dates on which each deal was signed, and an address to send the bill.

Unsurprisingly, Republican donors who lavished DeSantis, Trump, and other political campaigns with cash were first to sidle up to the trough.

Human rights advocates, faith leaders, and environmentalists have condemned the detention center, which is located in the Florida Everglades. Mark Morgan, a former acting director of ICE  during Trump’s first term, wrote an opinion piece for Fox News criticizing the facility as “built for headlines” and “ripe for failure, mismanagement and corruption.” This despite his support for the immigration crackdown.

These GOP donors whose companies helped build and run the tent facility were given seven-figure sums. Five Democratic state lawmakers who attempted to visit the site last year called the detention facility a “a pay-for-play scheme to enrich GOP donors under the pretense of border enforcement.”

A database of state contracts indicates that Granny’s Alliance Holdings Inc. was given a $3.3 million contract to provide meals. IRG Global Emergency Management signed a $1.1 million deal to provide “flight and operational support” services.

Connected vendors

Vendors chosen for the project include Lemoine CDR Logistics and CDR Health Care, companies led by Carlos Duart, a major Republican donor who along with his businesses has given millions of dollars to political committees for DeSantis, Trump, and other GOP candidates, according to federal records. CDR Cos. has been a go-to vendor for the state for years, and it provides engineering, emergency management, and health care services across the country.

Duart confirmed his companies’ involvement to The Associated Press but declined to specify the services they’re providing, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Asked if his businesses were picked because of his political support, he said, “we get chosen because we do exceptional work.”

Morgan offered a scathing critique of the entire project in his Fox News piece.

“Rather than investing in a durable, institutional enforcement backbone capable of sustaining President Donald Trump’s mass deportation mandate, Noem is shoveling detention funds into a pop-up project in a Florida swamp — proudly dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ It’s not a joke. It’s an insult,” he wrote.

“Let’s be clear: the heart of the Trump immigration agenda is mass deportation. That requires infrastructure like beds, buses and planes. And when it comes to beds, we’re talking real detention facilities and actual jails, not circus tents surrounded by reptiles.

“So why is Noem building a ’soft-sided’ facility in an ecologically fragile mosquito pit, 45 miles from downtown Miami? Why is she seeking to sideline ICE’s institutional partners with decades of experience and instead cutting side deals with states desperate for political brownie points? To be clear, this isn’t a critique of Florida’s historic leadership on immigration enforcement at the state-level. The concern is what could happen next.”