Governor DeSantis is building “Alligator Alcatraz” with little oversight – and this big campaign donor is set to reap millions from it

As the large commercial trucks roar one after another onto the airfield property in the Everglades where a massive detention camp for immigrants is being built, one State of Florida-contracted company name stands out among them: IRG Global Emergency Management. 

The company has brought everything from large trailers to golf carts to a command post into the detention camp that Gov. Ron DeSantis has dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” — and maybe even a kitchen sink or two.

“IRG is here every day, all day long,” said environmental activist Jessica Namath, who has diligently filmed the trucks’ movement into the facility, which was visited Tuesday by President Donald Trump and expected to open as soon as today. “They have these all black trailers and they brought in these very large industrial kitchens. They’re constantly bringing in equipment and resources for the small city they are building here.” 

On its face, IRG is a new firm, formed in February, that has so far been awarded a pair of state contracts totaling $20.8 million. But the company is an offshoot of Access Restoration Services US, Inc., which is a major campaign donor to DeSantis and has amassed state contracts totaling $108 million and $101 million in purchase orders since 2023, according to state records. 

The vast majority of those contracts and purchase orders have been issued directly by the governor’s office following executive orders declaring states of emergency ordered by DeSantis regarding immigrants and hurricanes that grant him extraordinary powers. The declarations allow DeSantis, in tandem with the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), to hand out contracts with little to no regulatory oversight, bypassing procurement and competitive bidding rules. 

In January 2023, DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida due to what he said was a mass influx of “unauthorized” immigrants. That order has been extended multiple times since then, due to what it terms an “ongoing crisis” that “continues to strain local resources and requires the continued coordination, direction, and resources of the State of Florida.” 

After extending the order again on June 2, DeSantis used his emergency powers to seize the remote Everglades airstrip, which is owned by Miami-Dade County, and begin building the detention camp without heeding environmental laws and regulations (the state now faces a lawsuit from environmental groups claiming the governor has overstepped his power). 

The site has become a money pit for taxpayers, who are footing the bill not only for the untold millions being used to construct the facility but also an estimated $450 million a year to operate. The latter is expected to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Trump has said he intends to eliminate as soon as the end of this year.  

Few firms have profited from the DeSantis-imposed states of emergency like ARS, which was paid $49,650,528 by the state in June alone on past contracts involving relief efforts for Hurricane Milton ($34.5 million) and Florida taxpayer-financed assistance for Hurricane Helene victims in North Carolina ($14.5 million). 

In June the ARS offshoot IRG received its first two contracts – a $19,678,600 agreement to transport Israeli evacuees from Cyprus and another $1,180,000 inked just nine days ago to provide “operational support services in support of migration efforts,” presumably tied to the building of the Everglades detention camp. 

The money and contracts kept flowing despite a scandal and multiple lawsuits involving a $3 million investment by ARS into a Houston law firm that allegedly engaged in an insurance fraud scheme involving inflated damage claims for hurricane victims in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. 

ARS didn’t garner  favored status with the DeSantis Administration until after it ponied up large sums of campaign money and hired a high-powered Tallahassee lobbying firm. 

State campaign records show that in 2022, ARS began throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into state Republican politics – beginning in earnest with a hefty $99,980 contribution directly to Friends of Ron DeSantis, the governor’s PAC at the time, on Nov. 3, 2022 – one week before Election Day. The firm donated another $99,980 to the Republican Party of Florida in 2023, followed by $50,000 more last year. In total ARS has donated nearly $400,000 to Republican coffers. 

It was in 2023 that the company hired Ballard Partners, a rainmaking Tallahassee lobbying firm headed by Brian Ballard, an early supporter of DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaigns and a prominent supporter of Donald Trump. The firm’s lobbyists include three former DeSantis Administration officials – the governor’s former chief of staff Adrian Lukis, deputy chief of staff Courtney Coppola, and former Secretary of Economic Opportunity Dane Eagle. Along with Ballard, all three have lobbied for ARS, which paid the firm $193,000 last year for its services, according to records on file with the state.

It was also in 2023 that ARS scored an open-ended contract to transport “unauthorized aliens within the United States,” according to documents on the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System (FACTS). The first big payment made by the state to ARS came on July 23, 2023 in the amount of $6 million. 

That was followed by agreements to rescue refugees from Israel and Americans in Haiti as well as assisting in multiple hurricane disaster relief efforts in Florida and North Carolina. 

State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando), a staunch opponent of the Everglades detention camp, said the scenario reeks of “pay for play” government. 

“It is exactly how it looks and it’s not unusual in how Gov. DeSantis works,” Eskamani said of ARS’ rise in prominence. “It’s clear pay for play, it’s clear you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. It’s favoritism and cronyism.”  

When reached on the phone by the Florida Trident, Ian Guidicelli, the FDEM’s bureau chief of response who has managed some of the state’s contracts with ARS, refused to comment. He referred a reporter to the agency’s deputy communications manager, Stephanie Hartland. After complaining of a bad connection on the phone, Hartland asked that a text be sent, but didn’t respond to one sent to her.

A voice mail left on the company’s listed phone number for ARS CEO Joseph Gagliano as well as an email sent to IRG were not returned prior to publishing this story. Gagliano resides in his native Canada, where the company was founded in Toronto by his family in 1959. In the United States, the company is centered in Conroe, Texas.

While ARS remains operating in Florida, the most recent state contracts have been awarded to the offshoot IRG Global, which was incorporated on February 28 and lists the same Texas address, as well as locations in Fort Lauderdale, Immokalee, and Louisiana. Listed as CEO of IRG is another member of the Canadian family, Giuseppe Gagliano, and serving as president is Robbie Meek, a former critical care flight paramedic who lives in Wilton Manors. 

Meek, who is also listed as an officer in ARS, shared a video on LinkedIn in March announcing the creation of IRG and summing up the work ARS had done in Florida. 

“Our year was kicked off in Haiti, where we had boots on the ground in Port au Prince where we were coordinating the evacuation of over 800 Americans and getting them home safely as conditions were rapidly deteriorating,” Meek said. “Then came hurricane season and it didn’t hold back. Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton brought massive flooding and destruction, especially in northern Florida. Our teams were working around the clock providing base camp support for thousands of first responders, as well managing critical logistics.” 

Two weeks after IRG was incorporated, Meek and his firm contributed a total of $6,000 to the campaign account of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is running for reelection. It was Uthmeier who, with a June 19 X post, first announced the plan to build the Everglades detention camp.

About the authors: Trident senior editor Bob Norman is a veteran investigative journalist whose work has won dozens of awards and led to criminal charges and the removal of several corrupt public officials. He can be reached at norman@flcga.org.

Michelle DeMarco is an award-winning investigative reporter who returned to journalism after more than two decades in public service. Contact her at demarco@flcga.org