Detainees at a now-closed immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades — known as “Alligator Alcatraz” — were held for up to two hours in small metal enclosures used as “calming areas,” a practice that “does not meet standards for humane treatment,” according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General released on Monday.
Between July 17, 2025, and Jan. 18, 2026, the report said, 79 detainees were confined in small metal enclosures of about 18 square feet of floor space each, for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours. Photographs included in the report show a cage that looks only slightly larger than a telephone booth sitting on what is either grass or turf and surrounded by chain-link fencing topped with concertina wire.
