‘Copy of Guantánamo’: Human rights group alleges torture at ‘Alligator Alcatraz'

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Two Florida migrant detention centers may have violated international standards by imposing conditions that could amount to torture of detainees, a human rights organization claimed in a report released early Thursday morning.

Amnesty International, a humanitarian group spanning 150 countries, alleged in 48-pages that the federal Krome North Services Processing Center and — to a far greater degree — the state-run Everglades site the DeSantis administration calls “Alligator Alcatraz” have engaged in practices that could violate international law.

They’ll send their report to Congress and the United Nations later this week, demanding an independent investigation into the centers, the organization said.

The Florida governor’s office and the Department of Homeland Security deny wrongdoing and the existence of any non-compliant standards at the facilities. They insisted the report was a “fabrication” or a “hoax” that could rile up anti-ICE sentiment.

“We were all shocked and horrified by what we saw,” Amy Fischer, Amnesty’s executive director for Refugee and Migrant Rights, told the Phoenix. She toured Krome with five colleagues in September and interviewed four detainees, all of whom had previously been held at the Everglades site.

None of them has a final removal order, the report says.

Their accounts paint a disturbing picture of extended solitary confinement at Krome, a 2-by-2-foot punishment “box” — compared to a lion’s cage at a circus — complete with shackles in the Everglades, and poor medical conditions at both South Florida centers.

One detainee claimed there was a death at the Everglades site, although it “went unreported” because “there’s no way to know what actually happened to the person because we’re not registered in ICE’s system.”

Amnesty only toured Krome. ICE denied its request to tour the Glades County Detention Center, which also houses immigration detainees, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management never responded to its tour request, the report says.

They didn’t respond to the Phoenix’s request for comment, either.

The Phoenix was unable to independently verify the four men’s stories. Amnesty’s report kept them anonymous, aside from their nationalities and immigration status.

‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis firmly cemented its status as the leading anti-undocumented immigration state in July after President Donald Trump flew to the heart of the Everglades to celebrate the opening of the nation’s first state-run migrant detention center: Alligator Alcatraz.

The sprawling, former training airport, now rife with industrial tents, can hold up to 3,000 detainees at a time in caged areas. And it hasn’t been without its controversies.

Lawsuits from Democrats, environmentalists, and activist groups have decried a lack of transparency surrounding humanitarian conditions, who is being detained, and environmental consequences.

Past reports have claimed the facility is flood-prone with poor food and features a “box” used for punishment.

Amnesty International claims that’s all true.

“People ended up in the ‘box,’ just for asking the guards for anything,” a Venezuelan man identified as an asylum seeker told Amnesty. “I saw a guy who was put in it for an entire day.”

“One time, two people in my cell were calling out to the guards telling them that I needed my medication,” a Chilean migrant said. He recounted how he was arrested by ICE while driving to the doctor for a case of pneumonia before being jailed in Walton County for three days.

He was bused to the center around 9 p.m. on a Friday, shackled until 4 a.m. without “any food or water,” he added.

“Ten guards rushed into the cell and threw them to the ground. They were taken to the ‘box’ and punished just for trying to help me,” he continued. “Any time that anyone demanded that our rights be respected, they were punished.”

Fischer told the Phoenix that the “box” resembled a lion’s cage at a circus, standing at just two-feet tall by two-feet wide. She said shackles are attached to its floor, and that it was kept in the “hot Florida sun.”

“People have to stay there for hours shackled and denied food and water as a form of punishment,” she said. “Amnesty’s analysis, based upon the use of the box, we have found that it meets the definition of torture under international law.”

“It’s a copy of Guantánamo,” a Cuban man identified as an asylum seeker told Amnesty. He was detained there for 11 days. “The conditions are inhuman.”

Thirty-two people are locked in a 1,000 square foot “cage” inside of a tent holding eight cages, the report says. There are three toilets per cage with cameras affixed above them, although another Cuban migrant said the toilets were frequently clogged “and s*** overflowed from them.”

They claimed staff would keep the bright “stadium lights” on 24/7.

The report alleges other malfeasance, including “racism,” lengthy delays in medical attention, and migrants getting just minutes to speak with their attorneys on a collect-call phone.

‘Fabrications’ and a ‘hoax’

The Florida governor’s office and the Department of Homeland Security vehemently pushed back on Amnesty’s allegations in statements to the Phoenix. They contended it contains fabrications that could stir up violent animosity toward immigration officials.

“Another day and another hoax about Alligator Alcatraz,” wrote DHS Assistant Director Tricia McLaughlin. “Nearly every single day, my office responds to media questions on FALSE allegations about Alligator Alcatraz. The media is clearly desperate for these allegations of inhumane conditions at this facility to be true.

“Feces are not overflowing in the toilets. Just like no one has died,” she continued. “These types of smears are directly contributing to our officers facing a 1,153% increase in assaults against them.

“Here are the facts: Alligator Alcatraz does meet federal detention standards. All detainee facilities are clean. Any allegations of inhumane conditions are FALSE. When will the media stop peddling hoaxes about illegal alien detention centers and start focusing on American victims of illegal alien crime?”

A Los Angeles Times investigation suggests that figure overstates the seriousness of the problem. However, a sniper targeted a Dallas ICE facility in September, opening fire on agents and migrants alike. Two detainees were killed. On July 4, a group of suspects launched a coordinated attack on the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, using fireworks to lure officers into an ambush.

DeSantis’ press secretary, Molly Best, echoed McLaughlin in her statement to the Phoenix.

“This ‘report’ is nothing more than a politically motivated attack,” she said. “None of these fabrications are true. In fact, running these allegations without any evidence whatsoever could jeopardize the safety and security of our staff and those being housed at Alligator Alcatraz.”

‘Amounts to torture’

The Everglades site wasn’t the only center Amnesty believes to have violated international standards.

At Krome in western Miami, the report details an ICE-led tour throughout parts of the federal detention center.

One section they entered was the solitary confinement ward. ICE officials told Amnesty that the minimum duration for solitary confinement is 24 hours and that the maximum is 30 days, though that can be extended, the report says.

One man held in solitary confinement put a sign through the metal flap in the door reading, “Help Me. I’m on Hunger Strike.” He had a broken hand, and ICE told the researchers he was being held there because of his hunger strike.

“The man showed Amnesty his bruised and mangled hand and said he had been waiting 37 days to receive medical attention,” the report says.

“As the man was describing his injuries, an ICE official repeatedly and violently slammed the metal flap against the injured man’s hands and forced Amnesty International out of the solitary confinement area, stating, ‘This is a detained population. They can be dangerous. Allow security to do their jobs, also he’s not on a hunger strike. He ate yesterday and today.’”

Because the United Nations considers solitary confinement in excess of 15 days to amount to “torture,” Amnesty found that the detention conditions at Krome “do not comply with international human rights law and standards.”

“Individuals are held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, face prolonged or arbitrary solitary confinement, lack adequate access to legal counsel and medical care, and experience treatment that collectively amounts to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment,” the report says.

“The use of prolonged solitary confinement at Krome and the use of the ‘box’ at “Alligator Alcatraz” amount to torture or other ill-treatment.”

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‘Copy of Guantánamo’: Human rights group alleges torture at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

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