- Details
- By Levi Rickert
Amnesty International is raising alarms over what it describes as “cruel, inhuman and degrading” conditions at two major immigration detention centers in southern Florida, following a September 2025 research mission examining the human rights impacts of federal and state migration policies under the Trump administration.
In a 61-page report released this week, the organization details findings from visits to the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County and the newly opened Everglades Detention Facility, widely known as “Alligator Alcatraz.” Researchers documented overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate medical care, and practices they say amount to torture.
The Florida Everglades, where Alligator Alcatraz is located, have been home to the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida for centuries. Both federally recognized tribes oppose the facility’s location, but their governments were never consulted.
Krome, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on the edge of the Everglades, has drawn heightened scrutiny this year after reports of severe overcrowding and multiple deaths. Amnesty International said people held at Krome faced prolonged delays during intake, packed temporary processing areas, and barriers to accessing attorneys and due process.
The group also reported “alarming disciplinary practices,” including the use of prolonged solitary confinement. Conditions inside the medical unit and the availability of care were described as “inadequate and inaccessible,” with some people reporting that medical issues went untreated for days.
Conditions at “Alligator Alcatraz,” which opened in July with space for roughly 3,000 detainees, were even more dire, the report found. Amnesty International said researchers documented toilets overflowing with fecal matter “seeping into areas where people are sleeping,” limited access to showers, constant artificial lighting, and infestations of insects without protective measures. People detained there also reported poor-quality food and water and a near-total absence of privacy.
The facility’s primary disciplinary tool — a small, windowless isolation unit referred to as “the box” — also raised serious concerns. Amnesty International said the practice constitutes torture or other ill-treatment under international human rights standards.
“Both facilities exhibit conditions that amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” the report states.
The organization is calling on the U.S. government to dismantle what it describes as a “mass immigration detention and deportation machine,” halt the criminalization of migration, and prohibit the use of state-owned facilities for immigration detention. It also urged federal authorities to conduct thorough investigations into all deaths, abuses and allegations of torture in custody, and to comply with international human rights law.
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