New Report by Amnesty International Reveals Torture and Overcrowding at Krome and ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

Amnesty International has issued a warning over severe human rights violations at two prominent immigration detention centers in southern Florida. The alert follows a September 2025 investigation into the effects of federal and state migration policies.

The organization's 61-page report examines the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County and the newly inaugurated Everglades Detention Facility, often referred to as Alligator Alcatraz. Researchers observed extreme overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, inadequate medical services, and practices considered by Amnesty to be tantamount to torture.

The Everglades region, home to the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida for centuries, was never consulted about the siting of the new detention center, which both tribes oppose. Krome has attracted criticism for overcrowding, multiple fatalities, and delays in processing detainees. Individuals held at Krome experienced packed intake areas, restricted access to legal representation, and prolonged solitary confinement. Medical care was reported as insufficient and often delayed.

Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz, which opened in July with a capacity of about 3,000 detainees, were found to be more extreme. Amnesty International documented overflowing toilets affecting sleeping areas, limited shower access, constant artificial lighting, insect infestations, and poor-quality food and water. Privacy was nearly nonexistent. The facilitys main disciplinary measure, a small, windowless isolation unit known as the box, raised serious human rights concerns, amounting to torture under international standards.

The report concludes that both centers subject detainees to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Amnesty International urges the U.S. government to dismantle what it describes as a mass immigration detention and deportation system, stop criminalizing migration, prohibit state-run detention facilities, and thoroughly investigate all deaths and abuses in custody while adhering to international human rights law.

Author: Olivia Parker