Two South Florida migrant detention facilities have engaged in treatment that Amnesty International says could amount to torture and violate international human rights standards, according to a report released Thursday.
The 48-page document focuses on the federal Krome North Services Processing Center and the state-run Everglades detention site known as "Alligator Alcatraz." Amnesty alleges detainees faced conditions including prolonged solitary confinement at Krome and confinement inside a two-foot-high metal cage — referred to as "the box" — at Alligator Alcatraz.
"People have to stay there for hours shackled and denied food and water as a form of punishment," said Amy Fischer, Amnesty's director for refugee and migrant rights, to Florida Phoenix, adding that the structure resembled a small animal cage left in the sun.
"Amnesty's analysis, based upon the use of the box, we have found that it meets the definition of torture under international law."
Amnesty says its team toured Krome in September and interviewed four detainees who had previously been held at the Everglades facility. They described extended isolation, lack of medical care, and punishment for requesting assistance.
One Venezuelan asylum seeker said detainees at Alligator Alcatraz were sent to the "box" for "asking the guards for anything." A Cuban detainee told the group, "The conditions are inhuman." Fischer said ICE officials removed her team from the solitary wing at Krome after a detainee tried to show his injured hand through a cell door.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates Alligator Alcatraz, did not respond to a request for comment about the report. In earlier statements to media, however, the agency has said allegations of mistreatment are "fabrications." Molly Best, press secretary to Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis, echoed that assessment, telling the Guardian that the Amnesty report was "nothing more than a politically motivated attack".
Amnesty said ICE denied its request to visit Alligator Alcatraz, and that the report protects detainees' identities due to fear of retaliation.
The organization is submitting its findings to Congress and the United Nations and calling for an independent investigation. "Individuals are held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions... and experience treatment that collectively amounts to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment," the report says.
Amnesty also warned that the Everglades site operates outside normal federal tracking systems, making it difficult for families or lawyers to determine where detainees are being held.
"These findings are a wake-up call," said Mary Kapron of Amnesty's research team. "The medical neglect, filthy and inhuman conditions, and dehumanizing punishment... in some cases amounting to torture, is abhorrent. Federal and state officials must act immediately to end this human rights crisis."
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