Amnesty International released on Thursday a report documenting cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment at immigration detention centers in Florida, US, managed by the state or a private company.
The report, Torture and enforced disappearances in the Sunshine State: Human rights violations at “Alligator Alcatraz” and Krome in Florida, reveals human rights violations that in some cases amount to torture, occurring at two detention centers, Krome and “Alligator Alcatraz”. Findings were gathered during a September 2025 research mission.
“These findings confirm a deliberate system built to punish, dehumanize, and hide the suffering of people in detention,” said Ana Piquer, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Americas. “Immigration enforcement cannot operate outside the rule of law or exempt itself from human rights standards. What we are seeing in Florida should alarm the entire region.”
“Alligator Alcatraz” is described as a Florida state-run human rights disaster worse than in prisons in countries in war time.
The research concluded that people arbitrarily detained in “Alligator Alcatraz” are living in inhuman and unsanitary conditions including overflowing toilets with fecal matter seeping into where people are sleeping, limited access to showers, exposure to insects without protective measures, lights on 24 hours a day, poor quality food and water, and lack of privacy – including cameras above the toilets.
Other treatment amounts to torture, including being put in the “box”, described as a 2×2-foot cage-like structure where detainees are put in as arbitrary punishment – sometimes for hours at a time exposed to the elements with hardly any water – with their hands and feet attached to restraints on the ground.
People interviewed shared that access to medical care is inconsistent, inadequate, or denied all together, placing individuals at serious risk of physical and mental harm. People reported being always shackled when they were outside their cage.
Alligator Alcatraz operates outside federal oversight, without the basic tracking systems used other. The absence of registration or tracking mechanisms for those detained at Alligator Alcatraz facilitates incommunicado detention and constitutes enforced disappearances.
“These despicable and nauseating conditions at Alligator Alcatraz reflect a pattern of deliberate neglect designed to dehumanize and punish those detained there,” said Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights with Amnesty International USA. “This is unreal – where’s the oversight?”
At the Krome Detention Center, operated by a private for-profit company, the research confirmed that despite having medical facilities on site, detained individuals reported serious medical negligence including failure to provide treatments and medical assessments. People detained at Krome confirmed previous reports of human rights violations.
In February 2025, Florida passed extreme and discriminatory immigration laws that are putting immigrant communities at grave risk, according to Amesty International. Local law enforcement has been deputized to act as immigration officials and detain people for immigration purposes.
Florida has become a testing ground for abusive immigration enforcement policies, closely aligned with the Trump administration’s agenda. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, the state has intensified the criminalization of migration and relied on sweeping emergency powers to rapidly scale up mass detention.
Immigration detention in the United States has a long record of abuses, Amnesty reports. President Trump has increased its use by nearly 70 percent since before his second term began, while conditions in detention have sharply deteriorated. Of the at least 24 people who have died custody since October 2024, six deaths occurred in Florida facilities.
Amnesty International is calling on both the government of Florida and the federal government to address systemic human rights violations within immigration detention facilities. The organization urges Florida to close Alligator Alcatraz and to prohibit the use of any state-run immigration detention. At the federal level, the government must end its mass immigration detention and stop the criminalization of migration.
A federal judge ordered in August to close Alligator Alcatraz but the ruling was blocked by Trump-appointed appellate court judges. The issue has not yet reached the Supreme Court which has a conservative majority after Trump appointed three of the judges.
