On Wednesday, Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani noticed that dozens of Alligator Alcatraz contracts on the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (FACTS) website were suddenly gone. Just a day prior, the Orlando state representative accessed the purchase order documents for the state's $79 million deal with Critical Response Strategies, the company responsible for managing the facility.
According to Eskamani, other contractors whose contract documents are no longer in the database include Gothams LLC, Garner Environmental Services, SLSCO LTD, Lemoine CDR Logistics LLC, CDR Health Care Inc., and Meridian Rapid Defense Group. The state paid Miami-based CDR Health, an affiliate company of FIU Board of Trustees Chair Carlos Duart's CDR Companies, $17.5 million. His wife, Tina Vidal-Duart, is the CEO of a healthcare consulting firm.It seems that the DeSantis administration just pulled more than a dozen contracts tied to the Everglades Immigration Detention facility from a public database of state contracts. These contracts total more than $200 million in taxpayer spending, and they are public records.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, PhD 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 16, 2025
New Times confirmed that those documents were, in fact, absent from the FACTS database.
"These contracts total more than $200 million in taxpayer spending, and they are public records," she added on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
As Eskamani pointed out, Florida law requires that the Department of Financial Services "provide[s] the capability for state agencies to report their contracts to the public in one central location." State statute further mandates that the chief financial officer "establish and maintain a secure contract tracking system available for viewing and downloading by the public through a secure website." That information, required within 30 days after executing a contract, must include details like each entity's name, contract start and end dates, type of services purchased, total compensation, and payments to date.And now it's gone. pic.twitter.com/QMBuoPkSGF
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, PhD 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 16, 2025
"However, I have no doubt that after exposing the excessive and out-of-control spending by the State of Florida towards private no-bid contracts, the state will now try to pull back on transparency and will drag their feet on uploading contracts," Rep. Eskamani continued.
In another tweet, she added, "If the state has nothing to hide and is proud of this excessive spending, then we should expect ALL contracts to be shared online and made available immediately."
Amid public backlash over the new detention facility, dubbed a "concentration camp" by critics, some state contractors entering the site have concealed their company logos and U.S. DOT numbers. This violates federal regulations and state law, which require that all interstate motor carriers display their USDOT number on both sides of their commercial motor vehicles.
"While DFS maintains the FACTS website, the addition of information contained on the site is managed by each respective agency associated with the contract," a DFS spokesperson wrote in a statement to New Times. "You may want to contact the Division of Emergency Management for more information."
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which manages Alligator Alcatraz, had not responded to requests for comment via phone or email at the time of this reporting.
Meanwhile, Rep. Eskamani tweeted Thursday morning that either the Executive Office of the Governor or FDEM removed the contracts from the state website.
"If they're so proud of this public spending for the Everglades Detention Facility," she tweeted, "then why hide it?"Confirmed that it was EOG and/or FDEM that pulled these PDF contracts off the state websites. I asked FDEM for a response yesterday but have not heard back.
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, PhD 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) July 17, 2025
If they’re so proud of this public spending for the Everglades Detention Facility then why hide it? https://t.co/tHojTz0qYc
