The Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector general has found that “Alligator Alcatraz,” the Florida-run immigration detention site in the Everglades, fell short of several detention standards, including those covering living space, recreation, hygiene and medical care. The findings come from an unannounced inspection on January 21, 2026, detailed in a report released Monday, September 14.
What inspectors found at Alligator Alcatraz
The site, formally called the Florida Soft-Sided Facility, held most detainees in soft-sided tents on an airstrip in Ochopee. The tents were divided into dormitory-style units with bunk beds and no common areas. At full capacity, each person had 28 square feet, less than half of the 75 square feet required under Florida state jail standards, CBS News reported. The inspectors said the arrangement could harm detainees’ physical and mental health.
Detainees received one hour of recreation three days a week, against an ICE standard of at least six hours a week. They could shower on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while Florida’s standards call for daily access. The report cited noncompliance with standards on medical care, food service, personal hygiene, recreation and environmental health and safety, according to an AILA summary. The facility did meet standards for intake and use of force, First Coast News reported.
The report also documented what it called “small metal enclosures,” cage-like units 52 inches long and 52 inches wide, or about 18 square feet. Staff described them as “calming areas.” Records showed 79 detainees were held in them between July 2025 and January 2026, for no more than two hours at a time and just under an hour on average.
Staff told inspectors that detainees asked to use the enclosures to be alone, that the doors were left unlocked and that a posted ICE notice said detainees could leave at any time. The inspectors also found at least one case in which an enclosure “may have been used as a disciplinary tool,” with a detainee placed inside for 26 minutes for not following commands. The report called their use “unprecedented among ICE facilities inspected by OIG” and recommended ending it.
Staff also could not clearly identify which detention standards applied to people held on immigration-related charges, the inspectors said. To assess the site, they measured it against both Florida’s state jail standards and ICE’s National Detention Standards from 2019, applying whichever was stricter.
Who was responsible for the facility
DHS disputed the findings. A department spokesperson told CBS News that the site followed the same federal detention standards used by earlier administrations and that allegations of inhumane conditions are false. In its formal response to the report, DHS also said it had no direct contract to manage detention space at the facility and that Florida held authority over day-to-day operations under delegated Section 287(g) authority. That program lets state and local agencies partner with DHS on immigration functions, including detention, Newsweek reported.
The inspectors did not accept that position. They said ICE must retain some oversight because all detainees were in ICE custody, ICE staff were on site and gave tours of the facility, and detainees received ICE handbooks.
Alligator Alcatraz closed in June 2026, less than a year after it opened. Because it stopped operating, the inspector general administratively closed the 10 recommendations it had made, which included ending the use of the small metal enclosures and improving access to recreation, legal materials and medical monitoring. The inspector general also said its concerns did not end with the closure, pointing to the Baker Correctional Institution, a facility in northern Florida known as “Deportation Depot” that remains open.