Trump Admin IG Finds ICE’s Use of Cramped Outdoor Cages To Punish Deportees Not ‘Humane’: Report

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector general found that the Trump administration’s use of outdoor cages to punish deportees was not “humane,” according to a government report obtained by NBC News.

In its report on the now-shuttered facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz”, The IG overseeing DHS confirmed that detained immigrants “were confined in outdoor cages only slightly larger than telephone booths for more than an hour at a time,” NBC News reported Monday.

“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the IG wrote in the report.

“The watchdog report marks the first time a government agency has confirmed the existence of the cramped cages at the South Florida Detention Facility,” according to NBC News. “Amnesty International found in a report published in December, based on interviews with detainees and a tour of the facility, that the cages were used to punish detainees and amounted to torture, sparking a congressional probe.”

After visiting the makeshift facility in January as part of its Congressional mandate to inspect detention facilities, the IG found that “79 detainees were held in the 16- and 18-square foot metal cages over the six months from July 17, 2025, to Jan. 18.” ICE employees told the inspectors that the cages were “calming areas” for “detainees to de-escalate and have time alone,” according to NBC News.

“The DHS watchdog findings are a rare instance when a federal inspector general has publicly criticized the Trump administration,” NBC News reported, adding that Trump has fired at least 18 IGs since returning to office, but Homeland’s IG, Joseph Cuffari, wasn’t one of them.

“Alligator Alcatraz” was opened in July 2025 at an isolated airstrip in Florida’s Everglades. It closed a year later after repeated complaints over safety and sanitary concerns by civil rights groups. In addition, The New York Times reported that DHS  deemed the facility too expensive, estimating that it cost Florida hundreds of millions of dollars to operate.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said the facility was being closed because it was only meant to be temporary, and had served its purpose.

DeSantis famously toured the facility with President Donald Trump and then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem shortly before it opened.

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