Read our editorial on mass deportations here, and the ongoing struggle against it here.
ICE agents regularly subject migrant detainees to torture, disappearance, and other human rights violations at two Florida detention sites: The “Alligator Alcatraz” facility in the Everglades and Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, according to a December 4 report by Amnesty International (AI).
“Alligator Alcatraz” began operations in the July, 2025. Since it is the first state-owned ICE facility, it skirts federal oversight and does not use standard ICE database systems for tracking the location of detainees or adhere to federal prisoner regulations such as the right to library access.
Amnesty International reports that detainees at “Alligator Alcatraz” are kept in cages with sewage running into the sleeping areas, limited access to showers, exposure to insects, and poor-quality food and water while the lights are left on 24 hours a day. ICE subjects detainees at Alligator Alcatraz to solitary confinement in “the box”, a cage where detainees are reportedly confined with their hands and feet shackled to the ground, unable to sit. Once ICE Agents force them into the box, detainees are left outside, exposed to the sun and mosquitoes with no access to food or water, sometimes for an entire day. According to the report, ICE uses “the box” torture against detainees demanding medical care and other rights.
The Krome North Service Processing Center, located in Miami, is a private enterprise managed by Akima Global Services, LLC. At Krome, detainees face similar forms of abuse and torture as those being held at “Aligator Alcatraz”. Krome detainees are regularly denied medical care, do not have access to adequate food, and face solitary confinement. A separate July report by Human Rights Watch describes how Krome detainees were shackled with their hands behind their backs and made to kneel and eat food off Styrofoam plates “like dogs.”
In addition to describing patterns of torture and abuse, Amnesty International’s report also documents episodes of ICE agents’ personal cruelty. In one instance at Krome, an Amnesty International representative attempted to speak with a detainee being held in solitary confinement through a small metal flap in the door. As reported by monopoly media in mid-December, the detainee explained that he had been denied medical care for his broken hand, which appeared “bruised and mangled,” and had been on hunger strike for 34 days. In the middle of this conversation, an ICE agent attempted to stop the exchange by repeatedly slamming the metal flap of the door on the detainee’s broken hand.
The report further describes a routine pattern in Florida’s ICE detention practices of holding detainees indefinitely and arbitrarily, transferring detainees between facilities to conceal their location, disappearing them and keeping them from entering legal processes. AI compares the conditions at the ICE facilities to practices used at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, US imperialist torture facilities used to repress the liberation struggles of the nations oppressed by imperialism. An October American Civil Liberties Union report detailed widespread abuse and medical neglect of pregnant women detainees in ICE facilities, noting that ICE has stopped tracking pregnant women while issuing blanket denials in attempts to cover up these vicious crimes.
These conditions function as state terror aimed at foreign-born workers, designed to punish resistance while encouraging self-deportation. Nevertheless, resistance is ongoing, with detainees staging hunger strikes against the torturous conditions in multiple facilities since September, including at “Alligator Alcatraz”, Angola Prison in Louisiana, and California City, CA. In June, ICE detainees in New Jersey rebelled and tore down their dormitory walls, with four detainees escaping.
Image: President Donald Trump visiting “Alligator Alcatraz” before it opened in July. White House photo.
The Worker is an entirely volunteer-run revolutionary newspaper free from and radically antagonistic to corporate influence. We rely on the support of our readers to sustain our editorial line in service of the working class and the reconstitution of its party, the Communist Party. Make a one-time or recurring donation to our newspaper today:
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
Your contribution is appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly
