Detainees at 'Alligator Alcatraz' facing 'harrowing human right violations', new report alleges [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Thu 4 Dec 2025 00.05 EST
Last modified on Thu 4 Dec 2025 13.56 EST


Detainees at the notorious Florida immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” were shackled inside a 2ft high metal cage and left outside without water for up to a day at a time, a shocking report published on Thursday by Amnesty International alleges. The human rights group said migrants held at the state-run Everglades facility, and at Miami’s Krome immigration processing center operated by a private company on behalf of the Trump administration, continue to be exposed to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” rising in some cases to torture.

The cage, known to detainees as “the box”, is used by guards for the arbitrary punishment of trivial or non-existent offenses, according to the report compiled from interviews with detainees and advocacy groups, and a site visit to Krome made by Amnesty workers in September.

“It’s a box outside, exposed to the south Florida sun and humidity, and exposed to mosquitos,” one detainee told the group. “One time, two people in my cell were calling out to the guards telling them that I needed my medication. Ten guards rushed into the cell and threw them to the ground. They were taken to the ‘box’ and punished just for trying to help me. I saw a guy who was put in it for an entire day.”

The Florida department of emergency management (DEM) operates “Alligator Alcatraz” independently of federal facilities under the umbrella of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/04/alligator-alcatraz-human-right-violations-amnesty-report