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Florida Spent $564M in Disaster Funds on Immigration. $7M Is Left for Hurricanes.

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Florida’s Disaster Fund Is Nearly Empty After Immigration Spending

Florida’s emergency disaster fund has under $7 million left after the DeSantis administration spent $564 million from it on immigration enforcement in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026. The fund paid for $890 million in total spending that year. Immigration consumed 63% of it, more than all emergency missions combined.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), the agency that runs the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” and “Deportation Depot” detention facilities, made those payments out of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund. That trust was created in 2022 specifically to let Governor Ron DeSantis pay for hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters without waiting for legislative approval.

DeSantis Redirected the Fund Through Repeated Emergency Declarations

DeSantis opened the disaster fund to immigration enforcement in 2023 by declaring a state of emergency on immigration, a declaration he has renewed at least 20 times since. That legal maneuver allowed FDEM to pull $573 million in immigration spending from the fund since 2023. Ninety-eight percent of that total was spent in the past fiscal year alone, driven by the construction and operation of the two state-run detention facilities.

$573 million pulled from Florida’s disaster fund for immigration since 2023, with 98% spent in the last fiscal year alone

The remaining disaster fund dollars last year paid for county assistance, severe weather response in the Panhandle and Northwest Florida, and costs tied to evacuating Americans from Israel after the October 7, 2023 attack. None of those purposes are gone, but the fund that once covered them is nearly depleted.

Outstanding Costs Far Exceed What Remains in the Fund

The $564 million paid out is not the final bill. Immigration contracts FDEM signed total roughly $1.01 billion, and the agency still owes detention facility vendors at least another $500 million. The fund holds under $7 million.

Florida lawmakers approved a $250 million transfer into the trust in June 2026, but as of this writing FDEM had not requested those funds. The agency also missed the statutory deadline for a quarterly financial report, which was due July 15, 2026. The Florida Phoenix confirmed that neither the Senate president’s office nor the House speaker’s office had received it. FDEM did not respond to questions about the report.

That missing report matters: lawmakers added the quarterly disclosure requirement this year precisely to track the fund’s condition. The agency’s silence is not a technicality. It leaves the Legislature without data on how much FDEM owes, how quickly it is spending, and how much disaster reserve the state actually has heading into peak hurricane season.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Call your Florida state legislator at myfloridahouse.gov and demand a formal audit of FDEM’s Emergency Fund spending, including all immigration contracts. The agency’s missed reporting deadline gives your legislator standing to act now.

  2. Contact the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee at (850) 487-5270 and tell them to withhold the $250 million supplemental transfer to the Emergency Fund until FDEM submits its overdue quarterly report and a full accounting of outstanding vendor debt.

  3. File a public records request with FDEM directly at floridadisaster.org requesting all immigration-related contracts, invoices, and outstanding vendor obligations from fiscal year 2025-2026. Florida’s public records law requires a response timeline.

  4. Contact your county emergency manager using the Florida Association of Counties directory and ask whether their county has received the disaster assistance funding it is owed, and whether they have been briefed on the state fund’s remaining balance.

Sources

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