DeSantis spokesperson defends Alligator Alcatraz cages as 'for violent criminal aliens'

DHS response did not address OIG’s 10 recommendations

The watchdog’s findings, based on an unannounced January inspection of the facility, officially named the Florida Soft-Sided Facility in the Florida Everglades, were published recently on the inspector general’s website. The site is now closed.

The report said the facility regularly shackled detainees in small outdoor cages for hours, a practice that “does not align with standards for humane treatment.” It found the facility did not comply with many state and federal standards, particularly the use of small metal cages, in which detainees were regularly locked outside for periods of “several minutes to nearly two hours.”

Each cage had about 18 square feet of floor space — roughly 4.25 feet on each side — making each enclosure less than half the 37-square-foot minimum required under ICE’s own published national detention standards. Over a six-month period, ICE confined 79 people in the cages, the report said.

“Use of these small metal enclosures for any reason is unprecedented among detention facilities OIG has inspected and present significant risks to detainee health and safety,” the report said, according to United Press International.

The OIG also said the facility did not provide detainees with sufficient living space, with each detainee receiving only 28 square feet of housing space when national standards require at least 75 square feet per person. The watchdog found noncompliance with standards related to medical care, food service, personal hygiene, recreation, environmental health and safety, and special management units.

Gov. DeSantis said Monday he had not read the report, The New York Times reported, while defending the facility as meant to exceed federal standards.

Lanfranconi, DeSantis’s communications director, said in a statement that the “left-wing media want to focus on a confinement area for violent criminal aliens who have proven they cannot remain peaceful while awaiting deportation.” He added: “While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we’d make it even smaller if we could.”

The OIG made 10 recommendations to improve ICE’s oversight of the facility. The Homeland Security Department’s response did not address those recommendations, the report said. “DHS contended the state — not the department — maintained authority over the facility’s day-to-day operations,” it added.

In December, The Guardian reported on an Amnesty International document describing multiple alleged human rights abuses at the facility, including the use of the cages. At the time, a DeSantis spokesperson had dismissed the claims as “fabrications.”