Florida Senator Ashley Moody cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which appropriates $45 billion for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers, and in June 2026 she voted for the Secure America Act, which gives ICE and Customs and Border Protection $69.5 billion more. She voted against body cameras for immigration agents, against unannounced inspections of a detention center, and against overturning a rule that makes immigrant workers lose their work permits.
Moody voted to confirm Kristi Noem and then Markwayne Mullin to run the Department of Homeland Security, and Joseph Edlow to run Citizenship and Immigration Services. Noem's department ended Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, and in Doral, Florida, the city with the most Venezuelans in the country, people went from having work permits, drivers' licenses and protection from deportation to no legal status.
In May 2026 Moody said Florida's Everglades detention camp, known as Alligator Alcatraz, had "served its purpose" and called for "more permanent structures." A federal judge had ruled two months earlier that the camp must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys. ICE removed the last detainees on June 16, 2026, and the site is now closed.
Ashley Moody's Votes on Immigration Enforcement, the Officials She Confirmed and Her Words on Alligator Alcatraz
- Moody Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law With $45 Billion for Immigrant Detention. On July 1, 2025, Ashley Moody voted yes on H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote, so the bill would have failed without her vote. The law appropriates $45 billion for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers and $29.85 billion for ICE hiring and removals, available through September 2029. The detention money is a 308 percent increase on an annual basis over ICE's 2024 detention budget, according to the American Immigration Council. ICE detention reached nearly 70,000 people by March 2026, and more than 70% of them do not have criminal convictions, KPBS reported, citing ICE data.
- Moody Voted for $69.5 Billion More for ICE and Border Patrol in June 2026. On June 5, 2026, Moody voted yes on S. 2, the Secure America Act, which passed 52 to 47 and gives ICE and Customs and Border Protection a total of $69.5 billion dollars until September 30, 2029. In April she had voted to adopt the budget resolution that set up the bill. Together with the 2025 law, Congress has provided nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars to DHS through these two bills, the American Immigration Council found.
- Moody Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Whose Department Ended Protected Status for Venezuelans. On January 25, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security. Noem's order ending Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans affects 348,202 Venezuelans in its first group, NBC 6 South Florida reported, and the administration has moved to end TPS for over 1 million people from several countries. During Noem's tenure an ICE officer killed Renee Good, 37, an American citizen, in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, and the medical examiner listed her death as a homicide; federal officials said she had weaponized her vehicle, though video evidence contradicted that.
- Moody Voted to Confirm Markwayne Mullin, Whose Department Paid Florida for the Everglades Camp. On March 23, 2026, Moody voted to confirm Markwayne Mullin as secretary of homeland security. Two months earlier Mullin had called Alex Pretti, the nurse Border Patrol agents killed in Minneapolis, "A deranged individual who came in to cause massive damage with a loaded pistol". In May 2026 Mullin's department approved a first Alligator Alcatraz reimbursement to Florida in the amount of $58,292,145. In July 2026, ICE officers in Houston and Maine shot and killed individuals in their cars, and in Florida, a man fleeing ICE officers was killed in a car crash.
- Moody Voted to Confirm the Immigration Services Director Who Ended Automatic Work-Permit Extensions. On July 15, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Joseph Edlow as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; he was confirmed 52 to 47. His agency's October 2025 rule ended automatic extensions of work permits for people with pending renewals, which DHS itself wrote would result in temporary lapses in employment authorization and lost compensation to workers. USCIS also froze green card and citizenship cases for people from 39 countries until a court found USCIS's pause on processing cases of individuals from the 39 affected countries was illegal.
- Moody Voted to Confirm the Head of the Agency Whose Border Patrol Agents Led City Surges. On June 18, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, by 51 to 46. The agency's Border Patrol ran high-profile operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and Minneapolis, and the Border Patrol commander reported bypassing the typical chain of command in which he would report to CBP chief Rodney Scott.
- Moody Voted Against Taking Back ICE's Unspent Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, six days after Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Moody voted no on an amendment to repeal the appropriations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the 2025 law and take back the unspent money. It failed 49 to 51. On April 23, 2026, she also voted against a motion blocking new budget-bill money for an agency that still had unspent money from the 2025 law. The money kept flowing, and ICE's own records list 36 deaths in its custody in the 2026 fiscal year.
- Moody Voted Against Body Cameras, Detention Inspections and Penalties for Abusive Contractors in June 2026. During the June 2026 debate on the Secure America Act, Moody voted against setting aside money for body-worn cameras on immigration officers, which failed 46 to 53; against stopping payments to detention contractors where DHS finds substantiated misconduct, excessive force, or violations of law or detention standards; and against paying for an unannounced inspection of the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark. Immigration agents have killed nine people since January 2025, NPR reported, and the private prison companies that run most detention centers reported a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue in spring 2026.
- Moody Voted to Keep a Rule That Makes Immigrant Workers Lose Their Work Permits in April 2026. On April 29, 2026, Moody voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 99, which would have overturned the USCIS rule ending automatic extensions of work permits for people with pending renewals. It failed 47 to 50, and the resolution died. DHS estimated 293,000 to 449,000 pending renewal EAD applicants at risk of a lapse without the extensions.
- Florida Sued Under Moody to Keep DACA Recipients Out of Affordable Care Act Coverage, and Their 2025 Plans Were Canceled. With Ashley Moody as Florida attorney general, Florida was one of the plaintiffs in a 2024 suit, Kansas v. United States, against the federal rule that let young immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status buy health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces; the court's order states that "The Plaintiffs are nineteen States," Florida among them. The rule had been written to allow DACA recipients to enroll in health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and on December 9, 2024, the court ruled that federal officials are preliminary enjoined from enforcing the Final Rule against the 19 Plaintiff States, so DACA recipients living in Florida could not get marketplace coverage under it. HealthCare.gov says the Marketplace canceled enrollments for 2025 Marketplace coverage selected by DACA recipients in the 16 plaintiff states it serves, Florida among them, and ended the 2024 coverage of those already enrolled. The plaintiff states later dropped the suit: on December 11, 2025, the court adopted a notice of voluntary dismissal submitted by the Plaintiff states.
- Moody Said the Everglades Detention Camp Had Served Its Purpose and Called for More Permanent Sites. In a Fox News Live interview reported on May 10, 2026, Moody said of Alligator Alcatraz: "I think you're hearing from Florida officials that they feel it's served its purpose, and we can now move on to more permanent structures." Two months earlier, a federal judge had ruled that the camp must provide people detained there with better access to their attorneys; former detainees said attorneys have to make an appointment to visit three days in advance. Operations cost $1 million a day, according to The New York Times as reported by Florida Politics, and the Justice Department said any reimbursement would cover operating costs, not the estimated $245 million spent on construction.
What the Homeland Security Officials Ashley Moody Confirmed Did in Florida
- Venezuelans lost status. Doral, in Miami-Dade County, is the American city with the most Venezuelans. After Noem's department ended their protected status, Venezuelans there went from having work permits, drivers' licenses and protection from deportation to no legal status, and a local advocate said many clients had lost the right to work and to buy health insurance.
- Everglades camp. Alligator Alcatraz detained roughly 1,500 people at a time during its peak. On June 16, ICE confirmed that all detainees had been removed, and the site was dismantled by mid-July 2026. The first federal reimbursement to Florida, $58,292,145, was approved in May 2026.
- Local police as immigration agents. All of the state's 67 counties have signed onto a 287(g) Agreement with ICE, and several Florida state agencies joined the task force model, which would broaden local and state officers' authority outside of county jail and detention centers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Immigration and enforcement
What is Ashley Moody's record on immigration enforcement under Trump?
Ashley Moody cast a deciding vote for the 2025 law that put $45 billion into immigrant detention, voted for $69.5 billion more for ICE and Border Patrol in June 2026, and voted against body cameras and detention inspections. She voted to confirm the Homeland Security secretaries whose department ended protected status for Venezuelans, many of whom live in South Florida, and she said the Everglades detention camp had "served its purpose" before it closed in June 2026.
What did Ashley Moody say about Alligator Alcatraz?
Ashley Moody said in May 2026 that Florida officials felt the camp had "served its purpose, and we can now move on to more permanent structures", meaning other detention sites. The camp had been run at a reported cost of $1 million a day, and ICE emptied it on June 16, 2026.
Did Ashley Moody vote against body cameras for ICE agents?
Yes. Ashley Moody voted no on June 5, 2026 on an amendment to the Secure America Act that would have set aside money for body-worn cameras for immigration officers; it failed 46 to 53. Most Americans disapprove of how the agency works: a Marquette Law School poll found 60% of adults disapprove of how ICE handles its job, while 40% of adults approve.
Did Ashley Moody vote to confirm Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin?
Yes. Ashley Moody voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security on January 25, 2025 and Markwayne Mullin on March 23, 2026. As of late August 2026, just four countries retain TPS, the protected status that Venezuelans in Florida lost under Noem.
Last updated: 2026-10-25