A DHS Watchdog Confirmed 'Alligator Alcatraz' Locked 79 Detainees in 16-Square-Foot Outdoor Cages. Staff Called Them 'Calming Areas.' Florida Spent More Than $1 Billion on the Camp.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has confirmed, for the first time from inside the government, that immigrants held at Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" detention camp were confined in outdoor metal cages measuring roughly 4 feet by 4 feet, or about 16 square feet, for periods that stretched to two hours. Facility staff called the enclosures "calming areas." Signage at the site said detainees were placed there to "reflect on their behavior choices, manage their emotions, reduce stress and practice self-directed behavior," according to the report, which NBC News detailed Monday.

The inspector general's office conducted an unannounced inspection of the South Florida Detention Facility on Jan. 21, 2026. Records showed 79 detainees were confined in the enclosures between July 17, 2025, and Jan. 18, 2026. The average stay was just under an hour, and the longest was about two hours. Indoor cages at the site measured 18 square feet. For comparison, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's own standards require a single-occupancy detention room of at least 37 square feet, and a solitary confinement cell in a federal prison runs about 84 square feet.

The report said "the use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment," and it faulted an "absence of well-defined standards" for holding people on immigration charges at the state-run site. Staff told inspectors the cages, placed in the outdoor recreation area, were closely monitored and that detainees were not locked inside them. ICE told the watchdog that detainees were shackled only while being escorted to the enclosures, not once they were inside.

Detainees have described the enclosures very differently. Amnesty International toured the camp in September 2025 and published its findings in December, reporting that people had been shackled in what they called "the box," unable to sit or move for hours in extreme heat with little water or protection from the sun. Amnesty concluded the practice "constitutes torture," and the report prompted a congressional investigation led by Sens. Jon Ossoff and Dick Durbin. Two guards at the facility were charged earlier this month with battering a detainee in an incident dating to January.

The camp opened in July 2025 on an airstrip in the Everglades as a partnership between Florida and the federal government under a 287(g) immigration enforcement agreement, with President Donald Trump attending the opening. It closed in June 2026. Florida spent more than $1 billion in taxpayer money on it, of which the Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursed $608 million. The cost worked out to more than $3,000 per detainee per day, roughly 15 times the typical ICE detention bed cost of under $200, and the site ran at more than $1 million a day overall.

DHS pushed back on the idea that the findings were a federal problem. The department said ICE had no contract with Florida to operate the facility and that a 287(g) agreement does not give the federal government control over day-to-day operations. Gov. Ron DeSantis, asked about the report, said he had not reviewed it but insisted "all those standards" were met and that the facility had been designed to "exceed those standards."

The report is a rare public rebuke of the administration from a federal watchdog. Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has removed at least 18 inspectors general. DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari was among the few Cabinet-level watchdogs he kept in place.