Immigrants held in small outdoor cages at 'Alligator Alcatraz' in Florida, investigators find
- 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.
155 Articles
155 Articles
Los Angeles Times
Independent EspañolThose detained in an immigration detention facility already closed in the Florida Everglades — known as the Alcatraz of the Caymans — were placed for up to two hours in small metal enclosures used as “reassurance areas,” a practice that “does not meet human treatment standards,” according to a new report by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security released on Monday.
Bay News 9
Spectrum News 13'Alligator Alcatraz' detainees were held in small metal cages, report says
It marks the first time a government agency has confirmed the existence of such conditions.
Sydney Morning Herald
‘Alligator Alcatraz’ put detainees in metal cages labeled ‘calming areas’
Detainees at the notorious Alligator Alcatraz were put in cages the size of phone booths.
'Alligator Alcatraz' suddenly shuttered following visit from federal auditors
A first-of-its-kind state-run immigrant detention site in the Florida Everglades, known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” shut down earlier this summer shortly after a team of federal auditors found the facility failed to meet a number of detention standards. A new Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report about the conditions inside the 1,500-bed tent […]
Serious allegations about immigration detention conditions at a Florida facility have come to light. Immigrants were temporarily held in tiny, phone booth-sized cells at the now-closed “Alcatraz with alligators” detention center, an internal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has revealed, finding a practice “unprecedented” in the United States. The immigration detention center, whose name combined the name of the infam…
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