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The Trump administration is offering $608 million to states willing to expand migrant detention efforts.
The money, announced through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) new Detention Support Grant Program (DEP), is aimed at helping states build or enlarge temporary detention facilities modeled after Florida’s Everglades compound known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” according to FEMA documents.
“[Department of Homeland Security] Secretary Kristi Noem has been very clear that Alligator Alcatraz can be a blueprint for other states and local governments to assist with detention,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The funding is part of FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program and is open for applications through Aug. 8, per FEMA’s announcement.
TRUMP SAYS ONLY WAY OUT OF ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’ IS DEPORTATION
President Donald Trump is flanked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem after arriving at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., July 1. Trump is visiting a migrant detention center in a reptile-infested Florida swamp dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
The program is intended to fast-track construction of secure, temporary detention sites on state or local land, sidestepping long procurement delays.
Noem has criticized federal contractors as costly and slow, and has encouraged governors to take a more direct role.
“They were willing to build it and do it much quicker than some of the other vendors,” Noem said of Florida. “And it was a real solution we’ll be able to utilize if we need to.”
Florida’s facility was built in just eight days on remote Everglades land at the Dade-Collier Airport. It holds up to 3,000 migrants and is surrounded by fencing, swamp, and natural barriers.
During a July 1 visit, President Donald Trump praised it as “so professional, so well done,” calling it “a model we’d like to see in…
