DHS watchdog: ICE used phone booth-sized cages to hold 79 detainees at Florida camp

A new report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has revealed that immigrant detainees at Alligator Alcatraz—the Trump administration's soft-sided detention camp in the Florida Everglades—were confined in two metal cages roughly the size of a phone booth.

Key Findings

• 79 detainees were held in the outdoor cages between the camp's hasty construction in July 2025 and its official closure in January 2026.
• Detainees spent between seven minutes and two hours in the enclosures, each measuring 4 feet 3 inches wide and 7 feet 9 inches tall.
• Staff referred to the cages as "calming areas," claiming detainees requested time there and that the cages were never locked—though both enclosures included locking mechanisms.

Disciplinary Use

The OIG found at least one instance where a "calming area" may have been used as a disciplinary tool. Documentation noted that a detainee who spent 26 minutes in a small metal enclosure had "failed to comply with a lawful command."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that the cages were used for "disciplinary issues, crisis intervention, housing changes, and conflicts among detainees," according to the report.

Congressional Concerns

In March, Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Dick Durbin wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and then–ICE Director Todd Lyons expressing concerns that immigrants were being kept in a small structure called "the box," where they were "held in stress positions with hands and feet tightly shackled for hours at a time, in direct sunlight with no access to food or water."

While the OIG could not confirm these specific claims, it stated that the use of these cages was "highly unconventional" and did not align with standards for humane treatment.

"Use of these small metal enclosures for any reason is unprecedented among ICE facilities inspected by OIG," the report stated. "Confining individuals in small metal enclosures for any reason presents significant risks to detainee health and well-being."

Broader Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz

The facility has been the source of dozens of disturbing reports of inhumane treatment, including:

• Flooding in the tents
• Worm-infested food
• Behemoth bugs
• No access to running water
• Widespread violations of immigrants' legal rights

A former corrections officer at Alligator Alcatraz previously claimed that detainees were being kept in a "human-sized kennel." One detainee told CBS News: "We're human beings; we're not dogs. We're like rats in an experiment."

Further reading: "Closing a Detention Center Is Rarely a Single Strike. It's a Siege."