A new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s official watchdog found substandard living conditions at the immigrant detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” including the use of small metal cages as “calming areas” for detainees.

DHS’s Office of Inspector General performed an unannounced visit in January at the state-run tent facility in Ochopee, Florida, that was hyped by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans before it closed in June. In the first line of the report, the watchdog notes that the staff there “could not clearly identify which detention standards they used for holding detainees on immigration-related charges.”

Though the center complied with use-of-force standards, the staff did not give immigrant detainees sufficient living space, inspectors found, offering them only 28 square feet per person when at maximum capacity, “less than half of what is required,” the report stated.

The general population housing “consisted of eight windowless soft-sided structures, or housing pods, without views to the outside and a lack of natural light.” Detainees generally only left their “cramped” quarters for meals, showers and limited recreation sessions.

Some of the more disturbing findings relate to what the report euphemistically calls “metal housing enclosures.” Facility staff referred to them as “calming areas.”

Over a six-month period, 79 detainees were placed in these cages, which had a footprint of just 4 feet, 3 inches by 4 feet, 3 inches. The report describes it as “a practice unlike any [inspector general] team has observed in ICE facilities” before.

Inspectors found “at least one instance” in which staff may have used a cage as a “disciplinary tool,” forcing a detainee to spend nearly 26 minutes in one.

The average time detainees spent in the cages was just shy of an hour, inspectors found.

The report also says staff failed to follow food safety protocols, running a freezer at a higher-than-safe temperature, and that detainees reported a lack of clean drinking water. Six of eight detainees interviewed said the water was dirty.

Detainees also received substandard recreation time and insufficient showers at just three times per week apiece, detrimental to their physical and mental health, the report states. Inspectors even found a bug infestation in one of the showers.

A DHS spokesperson said the agency does not have any detainees at the facility but defended the conditions there.

“Alligator Alcatraz was consistent with the same federal detention standards employed by previous administrations, including Biden and Obama. All detainee facilities are clean, and any allegations of inhumane conditions or excessive use of force are FALSE,” the spokesperson said in an email, referring further questions to Florida officials.

The immigrant detention facility was created by the state of Florida and began operating in July of 2025. It was staffed by contractors, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, though it had the full backing of the Trump administration as part of its deportation campaign. President Donald Trump seemed to relish the thought of a harsh facility for migrants, joking that they would have to run away from alligators.

“The more I thought of it, the more I liked it,” he said.

Immigration detention is not supposed to be punitive, and attorneys and advocates for detainees had harshly criticized the conditions at the facility as inhumane.

DeSantis announced the facility’s closure in June, saying it was never meant to be permanent.

“We stepped up because there was a gap, but my hope is that they’ll be able to handle that,” DeSantis said at the time.

This story has been updated with comment from DHS.

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