Migrants Say They Are Shackled Under the Sun Inside a Tiny Punishment Box at Alligator Alcatraz

Florida opened a detention center deep inside the Everglades and named it “Alligator Alcatraz,” placing immigration detainees into one of the most remote environments in the state under constant artificial light and near total physical isolation from any population center.

Since the site began operating this summer, migrants have reported unsanitary living conditions and limited access to attorneys and medical care. According to the Miami New Times, a new report now indicates that the treatment documented inside the facility may meet the legal definition of torture, with Latinos forming the overwhelming majority of those confined there.

A Detention System That Disproportionately Holds Latino Migrants

The Amnesty International report follows a September 2025 research visit to Miami in which investigators interviewed detained migrants, legal advocates, and federal officials. The findings describe overcrowding, malfunctioning sanitation, contaminated food, restricted communication, and constant exposure to high intensity lighting.

Although the facility operates under state authority, nearly all detainees transferred to Alligator Alcatraz originate from Latin America. This mirrors national detention patterns in which Latino migrants make up the dominant share of people held in immigration custody across the United States. At this site, the demographic reality is amplified by the physical isolation of the facility and the absence of public records that normally allow families and attorneys to locate detainees.

By late August, court filings tied to an environmental lawsuit revealed that nearly two thirds of the approximately eighteen hundred men held at the site in July no longer appeared in any public database after leaving the facility. Because the site is state run rather than federally operated, detainees frequently do not appear in Immigration and Customs Enforcement tracking systems at all.

Florida offers no independent public method to verify who is held inside the compound.

The Box and Allegations of Torture

Among the most severe findings detailed by Amnesty is the use of a punishment structure known among detainees as “the box.” Migrants described it as an outdoor cage so narrow that a person cannot sit, lie down, or shift position.

According to testimony collected by investigators, detainees were shackled at the wrists and ankles before being placed inside for hours at a time. Heat, humidity, insects, and lack of water compounded the physical effects. One man reported seeing another detainee confined inside the structure for an entire day.

Another detainee told Amnesty that two people in his cell were thrown to the ground by several guards after requesting medication on his behalf. They were taken to the box as punishment for speaking to officers.

Amnesty evaluated these accounts using criteria established by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which requires intent, the infliction of severe physical or mental suffering, a coercive or punitive purpose, and official involvement. The organization concluded that the use of the box satisfies those conditions.

Calls for Immediate Action

Amnesty International has urged Florida to immediately end all outdoor punitive confinement practices at the site and to allow independent monitoring of detention conditions. The organization also called for increased transparency regarding detainee records and medical access.

The findings arrive as national data continues to show that Latinos are detained at disproportionate rates across the immigration system, reflecting enforcement patterns that concentrate heavily on migration from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

At Alligator Alcatraz, this imbalance is reinforced by geography, jurisdictional gaps, and restricted oversight. The facility operates in one of the most physically inaccessible regions in the state while holding a population drawn almost entirely from a single region of the world.

Amnesty’s report reframes the public conversation from questions of harsh conditions to allegations of systematic abuse. What remains unresolved is how long the state will operate a detention system that functions beyond public verification while surrounding it with denials rather than documentation.