DeSantis admin doubles down on 'even smaller' immigrant 'torture' cages after outrage

The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) defiantly said it would make the metal cages used to confine immigrant detainees at "Alligator Alcatraz" even smaller if it could, after a government watchdog found the enclosures to be inhumane and said that they violated Immigration and Customs Enforcement rules.

Alex Lanfranconi, the governor's director of communications, made the remark in an emailed statement to the Miami Herald, responding to a Sept. 11 report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general.

Inspectors found that the state-run Everglades detention center confined 79 detainees in small metal enclosures of about 18 square feet each, according to the report.

"The left-wing media wants to focus on a confinement area for violent criminal aliens who have proven they cannot remain peaceful while awaiting deportation," Lanfranconi said. "While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we'd make it even smaller if we could."

"At least ten million illegal aliens entered our country under the Biden administration," he added. "Florida decided to do something about it."

The inspector general's report described the enclosures differently, saying the use of such restrictive spaces is "highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment." Inspectors recommended that the enclosures be discontinued immediately, for any reason and any length of time.

The enclosures measured about 4 feet 3 inches square and stood 7 feet 9 inches tall, the report said. Detainees were held inside for periods ranging from under seven minutes to nearly two hours between July 2025 and January.

Facility staff told inspectors the enclosures were "calming areas" where detainees could de-escalate and have time alone, and said detainees asked to spend time in them. Staff also said detainees were not locked inside, though inspectors reported seeing locking mechanisms on the doors.

Facility documentation showed at least one instance in which an enclosure may have been used as a disciplinary tool, according to the report. One detainee spent 26 minutes inside after he "Failed to comply with a lawful command."

Detainees interviewed by Amnesty International last year called the enclosure "the box" and said their hands were shackled and their feet attached to restraints on the ground, according to NBC News. The organization concluded that using the box as punishment "constitutes torture."

"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, when the group published its findings.

DeSantis said Monday at a news conference in Lakeland that he had not read the inspector general's report, the Herald noted. He said the state's goal in building the center was to exceed federal standards.

"I think some of this stuff is going to be characterized in a certain way no matter what," DeSantis said.

A second state-run immigration detention center in Florida, the Baker Correctional Institution, remains open and held 1,028 detainees as of Aug. 27, the report said. No internal federal inspection of it is scheduled through 2027.