Immigrants at the Florida detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz were kept in “small metal enclosures” for up to nearly two hours in what the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog is calling a highly unusual and inhumane detention practice.
The DHS Office of Inspector General report says the enclosures were about 4 feet 3 inches wide and 7 feet 9 inches tall. The facility’s staff referred to them as “calming areas.” Investigators said they learned of at least one instance where the cage may have been used to discipline a detainee. Investigators described the use of cages as “a practice unlike any” they had observed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the report said.
The facility, built in the heart of the Florida Everglades, became a symbol of the aggressive tactics used by the Trump administration on undocumented immigrants. Detainees and former guards described miserable living conditions to The Washington Post just two weeks after the facility opened in July 2025. By June of this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that federal authorities had detained and processed between 22,000 and 25,000 immigrants at the detention center.
The inspector general’s investigation found that the nearly 1,500 detainees were living in “cramped conditions” inside windowless housing pods without views to the outside or natural light. Images in the report show rows of bunk beds enclosed in fencing. The facility had well below the required amount of square footage per detainee, the report said, with about three times the number of detainees per pod that federal standards would have allowed.
Detainees were not allowed to shower daily, which also violated federal standards, and the showers were infested with small bugs, investigators found. Detainees also had insufficient recreational time and lacked access to legal information, which may have prevented them from contacting a lawyer.
The investigation was conducted in January as part of a congressional mandate. Though Alligator Alcatraz was operated by the state, because it was holding ICE detainees, it was required to follow federal detention standards.
Last year, Amnesty International issued a report on the detention center based on interviews with former detainees and alleged that some of the conditions in the facility amounted to torture. In March, senators launched a congressional probe into the facility.
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