A Place Called Ochopee – How Alligator Alcatraz Devours Millions, Torments Human Beings, and Is Handsomely Rewarded for It

It was one of those files that were never meant for the public. No press release, no tweet, no transparency portal. Just a sober procurement document, circulated internally between agencies and contractors – filled with hourly wages, totals, and job descriptions. We were able to secure it. Through research, targeted inquiries, and contacts with people committed to the truth. Now it lies before us. And with it, a disturbing image of governmental priorities in the year 2025. What is documented is the staffing plan for the ICE detention facility in Ochopee, Florida – internally referred to as the “Alligator ICE Facility,” long known among critics as Alligator Alcatraz. The address: 54575 Tamiami Trail, Ochopee, deep in the Everglades. The order: issued on July 10, 2025 by Florida’s emergency agency DEM, addressed to Critical Response Strategies LLC, with a total value of 78,525,978 US dollars. The purpose: to provide personnel for administration, control, supervision, and processing. The reality: a quantified apparatus designed for the systematic breakdown of human beings. And it is a lucrative apparatus. A CO Captain – that is, a senior ICE officer – earns up to 78 dollars per hour in overtime, according to the contract. That adds up to a single total of 5,690,880 dollars. An intake supervisor, including regular and overtime hours, reaches nearly 1 million. Even roles like badge admin – managing ID cards – are billed at 57 dollars per hour. And for plans review – a vaguely defined role related to plan assessment – 1,480,000 dollars were allocated for 1,000 hours of work. That’s 185 dollars per hour. In contrast: teachers and social workers in Florida. They earn between 20 and 28 dollars an hour, often less. They teach, support, save lives. In Ochopee, by contrast, people are detained, classified, processed. And all at day rates that render any talk of budget constraints absurd.

We have reviewed the complete documents – over 60 different positions, each individually listed, each meticulously calculated. More than 180,000 working hours were contractually agreed, distributed across roles whose function only makes sense in a repressive context. The terminology in the contract speaks for itself: Corrections Officer – Overtime Hours: 2,288 hours at 63 dollars – total: 14,414,400 dollars. Class D/G Personnel – Overtime: identical amount. EOC/Operational Support – Overtime: 1,100 hours at 172.50 dollars – total: 1,328,250 dollars. These amounts are not a clerical error. They are deliberate. They are part of a system that translates state-driven harshness into numbers – efficient, depersonalized, perfectly calculated. And funded with public money. What happens at Alligator Alcatraz is not a malfunction but a structure. It is not about safety. It is about control. About deterrence. About sending a message: those who don’t belong will be processed, not heard. Will be counted, not asked. Will be removed – not taught. And it is not only refugees who suffer under this logic. It is a society that systematically undervalues its teachers, nurses, and social workers while elevating every uniformed functionary in the shadow state of migration enforcement.

Alligator Alcatraz is a monument. Not made of concrete, but of numbers. Not of barbed wire, but of payroll sheets. It shows what a state is willing to pay when human dignity becomes a business variable. And it shows where the money goes that is supposedly lacking – in schools, in clinics, in social programs. We will continue to investigate. Continue to publish. Continue to ask who exactly profits from this system. Because this document is not an isolated case. It is a window into a quiet catastrophe – Alligator Alcatraz, where contempt never grows tired.

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