Staff at Florida’s now-shuttered detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” put immigrants inside small metal cages they labeled as “calming areas,” according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.
The DHS watchdog said 79 detained immigrants spent several minutes to nearly two hours enclosed in the cages. At least two of those were outdoors and didn’t have enough space for someone to lie down, the report published Monday states.
The Office of the Inspector General described the practice as unlike anything its inspectors had witnessed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. Florida opened the center in July 2025.
“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment.” the report states. “Facility staff described the small metal enclosures as ‘calming areas’ for detainees to deescalate and have time alone. Staff further maintained that detainees asked to spend time in the small metal enclosures.”
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The existence of the cages was described in an Amnesty International report in December, and The Washington Sun spoke that month with detainees who witnessed others being put in “the box.”
“The mosquitoes were huge. And if someone tells you they’ll put you in the cage, you immediately get scared,” Rogelio Enrique Bolufé Izquierdo, a Cuban national who has since been deported to Ecuador, told The Sun in December.
The outdoor metal cages were 4 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 3 inches and 7 feet 9 inches tall and their use presents “significant risks to detainee health and safety,” according to the DHS OIG report.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in June the closure of the detention center in the Everglades, nearly a year after it opened. The facility had prompted several lawsuits from environmental and immigration advocacy groups and the Miccosukee Tribe.
“The left-wing media wants to focus on a confinement area for violent criminal aliens who have proven they cannot remain peaceful while awaiting deportation,” Alex Lanfranconi, DeSantis’ communications director, said in a statement. “While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we’d make it even smaller if we could.”
Hundreds of the detainees first detained at Alligator Alcatraz didn’t have any criminal charges in the U.S., according to a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times investigation.
The OIG team inspected the lockup in January, finding that it didn’t comply with medical care, food service, personal hygiene and other standards, according to the report. For example, detainees were only allowed to shower three times a week. There was also an insect infestation in the shower facilities.
DHS skirted responsibility for the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz, responding in a letter to the watchdog that it didn’t have a contract with the state to manage the detention space.
“Even as to a facility where a state detains aliens under 287(g) authority, the state maintains authority over the day-to-day operations of that facility,” ICE acting director David Venturella and Brian Cavanaugh, the under secretary for management at DHS, wrote in a letter.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story has been updated to include a statement from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office.
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