Amnesty International today released a new report documenting cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment at two immigration detention centers in Florida: The Everglades Detention Facility (“Alligator Alcatraz”) and the Krome North Service Processing Center (Krome).
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 Krome and “Alligator Alcatraz” within an increasingly hostile anti-immigrant climate in Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis, whose administration has intensified criminalization and mass detention of migrants and people seeking safety. 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”: A Florida State-Run Human Rights Disaster
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.
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. Other treatment those detained have endured amounts to torture, including being put in the “box”, a 2×2 foot cage-like structure people are put in as 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.
“Alligator Alcatraz” operates outside federal oversight, without the basic tracking systems used in ICE facilities. The absence of registration or tracking mechanisms for those detained at Alligator Alcatraz facilitates incommunicado detention and constitutes enforced disappearances when the whereabouts of a person being detained there is denied to their family, and they are not allowed to contact their lawyer.
“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?”
Krome: Overcrowded, Chaotic, and Dangerous
At ICE’s 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. For example, there were reports of overcrowding, prolonged and arbitrary solitary confinement, lack of adequate medical care, overflowing toilets, lack of access to showers, constant illumination, and broken air conditioning.
People shared stories of violence and ill-treatment from guards. Amnesty International staffers witnessed a guard violently slam a metal flap of a door to a solitary confinement room against a man’s injured hand. Other people reported being hit and punched by guards. People also reported difficulty in accessing counsel, and not knowing how long they will be detained nor what will come next for them.
“Krome’s extreme overcrowding, medical neglect, and reports of humiliating and degrading treatment paint a picture of harrowing human right violations,” said Fischer.
“Everybody who’s in a detention facility is suffering:” Immigration enforcement and detention in Florida
In February 2025, Florida passed extreme and discriminatory immigration laws that are putting immigrant communities at grave risk. The expansion of 287(g) agreements that deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration officials and detain people for immigration purposes have led to wrongful arrests, racial profiling, and widespread fear that prevents families from accessing schools, hospitals, and other essential services.
Florida has become a testing ground for abusive immigration enforcement policies, closely aligned with the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and racist 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. Since January 2025, Florida has increased the number of people in immigrant detention by more than 50 percent. Between June and August 2025 alone, the state issued 34 no-bid contracts totaling more than $360 million for “Alligator Alcatraz”, with annual operating costs projected at $450 million — all while cutting billions from essential health, food security, emergency response, and housing programs.
“The choice to prioritize punishment, dehumanization and cruelty over public welfare is as shortsighted as it is appalling,” said Fischer.
Immigration detention in the United States has a long record of abuses. 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 in ICE custody since October 2024, six deaths occurred in Florida facilities, including four at Krome.
Recommendations
Amnesty International is calling on both the government of Florida and the U.S. government to address systemic human rights violations within immigration detention facilities. The organization urges Florida officials to close Alligator Alcatraz and to prohibit the use of any state-run immigration detention. The state must end the misuse of emergency powers, halt all no-bid procurement, and redirect detention funding toward essential health care, housing, and disaster-relief programs. The recommendations also include banning shackling, solitary confinement, and punitive outdoor confinement; ensuring confidential access to legal counsel and interpretation services; conducting transparent and independent investigations into torture and medical neglect; and establishing meaningful, independent oversight for all detention facilities.
At the federal level, the U.S. government must end its cruel mass immigration detention machine, stop the criminalization of migration, and bar the use of state-owned facilities for federal immigration custody. The U.S. government must ensure thorough investigations into all deaths, allegations of torture in custody and other abuses, and comply with international human rights standards. Also, the federal government must undertake a comprehensive review of ICE contracts with state and private actors to ensure human rights compliance, the restoration of protections for “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals, and churches, and increased federal funding to support universal legal representation and interpretation services in immigration proceedings.
“The conditions we documented at Alligator Alcatraz and Krome are not isolated – instead they represent a deliberate system of cruelty designed to punish people seeking to build a new life in the U.S.,” said Fischer. “We must stop detaining our immigrant community members and people seeking safety and instead work toward humane, rights-respecting migration policies.”
