Watchdog: 'Alligator Alcatraz' Put Detainees in Small Metal Cages
The inspector general said 79 detainees were held in cages averaging about 18 square feet and found sanitation, medical care and recreation failures.
- The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General confirmed on Monday that staff at the now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz confined 79 detainees in small metal enclosures measuring 18 square feet, a practice the watchdog called highly unconventional and inconsistent with humane detention standards.
- Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration opened the Everglades detention center in July 2025 as a temporary immigration enforcement site operating under a federal-state 287 partnership agreement with ICE.
- While facility staff described the enclosures as "calming areas" for detainees to "de-escalate and have time alone," detainees and Amnesty International reported the spaces were used as punishment, calling them "the box" and alleging torture.
- Because the facility ceased operations in June 2026, the inspector general administratively closed ten recommendations, including demands to stop using the cages and provide clean drinking water, leaving oversight questions unresolved.
- Financial records reveal the project cost taxpayers more than $1 billion, with daily per-bed expenses exceeding $3,000—roughly 15 times the typical ICE detention rate—underscoring the extreme cost and ongoing questions about federal accountability.
241 Articles
241 Articles
Catholic Review
The Catholic SunDHS watchdog finds inhumane conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz,' including use of small enclosures
Dozens of immigrants detained at Florida's now-shuttered "Alligator Alcatraz" were held in 18-square-foot outdoor cages -- about the same size as telephone booths -- according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.
The attack on human rights is systemic under the Trump administration, with torture in migrant concentration camps in Alligator Alcatraz (Florida) and blind deportations, as the offensive against Supreme judges, journalists and the construction of fear against the internal enemy continues Last week I was at the Dallas akelarre trumpista. It was the first time I had attended a convention of an American party. And it was quite exhausting: a succes…
Alligator Alcatraz Used Small Cages to Confine Migrants
When federal investigators showed up unannounced at the sprawling pop-up prison in the Florida Everglades in January, they found something they had never seen at any other immigration detention center in the country: Detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” were being held for up to nearly two hours in small metal cages roughly the size of a phone booth.
Inspector General Reports Finding Some Immigrants Held in Small Cages at ICE Facility
President Donald Trump (2L), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (L), and then Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R) tour a detention center for illegal immigrants, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., on July 1, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS watchdog finds inhumane conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ including use of small enclosures
A report by DHS's Office of Inspector General detailed unhygienic conditions in the facility and that dozens of immigrants detained at "Alligator Alcatraz" were held in 18-square-foot outdoor cages.
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