Dozens of detainees at ICE’s notorious "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention center were kept in cages for short stretches of time, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general.
The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security released the report last week detailing several concerning findings at the now-shuttered Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Florida. Among the inspector general’s findings, 79 detainees were kept in the metal cages for as long as two hours, detainees did not have access to clean drinking water and were kept in cramped quarters.
OIG officials called the cages "a practice unlike any OIG team has observed in ICE facilities."
"Use of such restrictive spaces
is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment," OIG officials added in the report.
A spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the administration would have preferred to make the cages – about the size of a phonebooth – smaller.
"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," said Alex Lanfranconi, DeSantis’ communications director. "While it adheres to all federal standards for criminal confinement, we’d make it even smaller if we could."
The report did not say what crimes, if any, people held in the cages are alleged to have committed. According to the report, people detained at the center were held on "immigration-related" charges, a civil offense.
People detained at the center previously said ICE put them in "the box," as the cages were known, as punishment. The cages were placed in direct sunlight on 90-degree days and detainees were not given water, detainees reported.
A spokesperson for the DHS denied the report’s findings and referred questions to Florida authorities who were charged with running the site.
The report was based on a surprise visit to the site in January. The center was closed over the summer after detainees at the site were removed for deportation, Florida authorities previously said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE detainees held in cages at 'Alligator Alcatraz', watchdog finds
