ANNALS OF De$ANTI$TAN: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Used Small Cages as ‘Calming Areas,’ Report Says. (Madeleine Ngo, Hamed Aleaziz & David Ovalle)

From The New York Times: 

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Used Small Cages as ‘Calming Areas,’ Report Says

The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog provided new details about conditions at the now-shuttered Florida detention center.

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President Trump visiting the detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz in Ochopee, Fla., last year.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Madeleine Ngo Hamed Aleaziz and David Ovalle

Sept. 14, 2026Updated 4:04 p.m. ET

A state-run immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades failed to comply with a host of federal detention standards, creating cramped conditions and confining migrants in “small metal enclosures,” according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog.

The report said the use of the enclosures was unprecedented among facilities that the watchdog, the department’s Office of Inspector General, had previously inspected, and presented “significant risks” to detainees’ health and safety. It focused on a high-profile facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, which came under intense scrutiny before it closed this summer.

The report raised further questions about a facility that became synonymous with the Trump administration’s harsh treatment of immigration detainees. President Trump had joked that the location was in such a remote area that detainees would have to learn “how to run away from an alligator.” It was shuttered after criticism about conditions and cost, and after enduring legal challenges.

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Images released in a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office show small metal enclosures that were referred to as “calming areas.”Credit...U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General

Federal investigators found that the metal enclosures — each providing only about 18 square feet of floor space — were used as “calming areas,” where at least 79 detainees were held for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours. Although facility staff said that detainees asked to spend time in the enclosures, federal investigators found at least one instance in which the enclosures were used to discipline a detainee who “failed to comply with a lawful command.”

“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the report said.

Facility staff said detainees were not locked in the enclosures, but federal investigators found locking mechanisms on them. The average time detainees spent in the enclosures was about an hour.

The Department of Homeland Security said that the facility was managed by the State of Florida, but that conditions there were “consistent with the same federal detention standards employed by previous administrations.”

“All detainee facilities are clean, and any allegations of inhumane conditions or excessive use of force are FALSE,” the department said in a statement.

Speaking on Monday at a news conference in Lakeland, Fla., Gov. Ron DeSantis said he had not read the report. But he defended conditions at the facility, which he said was a crucial part of the state’s efforts to remove criminals in the country illegally from the streets of Florida.

“When they set it up, their goal was not only to meet the federal standards but to actually exceed the federal standards” for detainee conditions, Mr. DeSantis said.

Alex Lanfranconi, the governor’s communications director, defended the use of the enclosures and said in a statement that 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.”

“While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we’d make it even smaller if we could,” Mr. Lanfranconi added.

Investigators found that the facility complied with intake and use-of-force standards, but that it did not comply with a variety of national detention standards related to medical care, food service, personal hygiene and recreation.

The report said the facility’s staff failed to provide detainees with sufficient living space. National standards require detainees to be given at least 75 square feet of floor space per person. But at maximum capacity, the housing units at the facility only provided 28 square feet per detainee, according to the report.

Federal investigators also noted that one freezer at the facility was operating above the recommended temperature, which they said could result in food spoilage and increase the risk of illness for detainees.

Facility staff also said that detainees showered only three times a week, which prevented them from “maintaining good personal hygiene,” the report said. National standards typically require that detainees have daily access to showers. Federal investigators also found that the facility’s showers were “infested with small bugs,” particularly on the ceilings.

In July 2025, Florida quickly erected the detention center on a training airport in a rural area between Miami and Naples, championing the facility as part of the state’s efforts to assist President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. They even erected an “Alligator Alcatraz” sign on a road to the facility, which critics denounced as cruel.

The facility cost state officials more than $1 million per day to operate, including for trucking in water and wastewater disposal. Florida officials closed the facility this summer, citing the impending hurricane season — even though detainees had spent the 2025 season at Alligator Alcatraz.

The inspector general’s report adds to the lingering fallout over Alligator Alcatraz. Florida lawmakers this month  approved $250 million in additional funding for the emergency management agency to help cover outstanding bills related to immigration enforcement, including Alligator Alcatraz. The federal government had earlier agreed to reimburse more than $600 million for expenses related to that facility and another one upstate, although much of that money is still unpaid.

Also this month, two Alligator Alcatraz guards were arrested on allegations that they had struck a detainee. They face misdemeanor battery charges in Collier County, Fla., and have pleaded not guilty.

Although the Department of Homeland Security has maintained that the state had authority over the facility’s day-to-day operations, the Trump administration has faced growing scrutiny over the treatment of migrants in detention facilities overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The deaths of at least three detainees in less than eight months at Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention center in New Jersey, have recently raised questions about the quality of medical care provided to migrants.

Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for The Times.

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.