In December 2025, Amnesty International published the results of a September 2025 research trip to two immigration detention facilities in southern Florida: the Everglades Detention Facility, known as \"Alligator Alcatraz,\" and the Krome North Service Processing Center. The investigation documented treatment that meets the international legal definition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and enforced disappearance.
\nThe most severe finding involves a punitive device at Alligator Alcatraz called \"the box\" — a 2x2 foot cage-like structure in which detainees are restrained with their hands and feet attached to the ground. People are placed in the box for hours at a time, exposed to the elements with minimal water. Under established international law standards, including the Nelson Mandela Rules and Convention Against Torture, this practice constitutes torture.
\nAlligator Alcatraz operates entirely outside federal oversight. Unlike ICE facilities, it has no registration or tracking systems for detainees. When the whereabouts of a detained person are denied to their family and they are prevented from contacting their lawyer, this meets the legal definition of enforced disappearance under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance — a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.
\nAmnesty International concluded that the use of prolonged solitary confinement at Krome and the use of \"the box\" at Alligator Alcatraz amount to torture or other ill-treatment. The organization called for the immediate closure of Alligator Alcatraz and prohibition of any state-run immigration detention in Florida.
", "citation": "Torture and Enforced Disappearances at 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Krome Detention Centers. https://trumpswarcrimes.com/incident/alligator-alcatraz-detention-torture. Published September 1, 2025. Updated March 25, 2026." }, { "slug": "guantanamo-immigrant-detention", "title": "Guantanamo Bay Immigrant Detention: Solitary Confinement and Torture Conditions", "url": "https://trumpswarcrimes.com/incident/guantanamo-immigrant-detention", "date": "2025-01-29", "lastUpdated": "2026-03-25", "displayDate": "January 29, 2025", "displayLastUpdated": "March 25, 2026", "summary": "Immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay face conditions amounting to torture: 23+ hour solitary confinement, punishment chairs, physical abuse, and incommunicado detention. ACLU and CCR lawsuits challenge the offshore detention as unconstitutional and beyond the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act.", "category": "deportation-to-torture", "categoryLabel": "Deportation to Torture", "severity": "extreme", "severityLabel": "War Crime / Crime Against Humanity", "posture": "active-litigation", "postureLabel": "Active litigation", "ongoing": true, "victims": "Approximately 500 immigrants, including asylum seekers, detained at Guantanamo Bay Migrant Operations Center. Detainees include nationals from Haiti, Venezuela, and other Latin American and Caribbean countries. Several have attempted suicide due to conditions.", "perpetrators": "Department of Homeland Security, US military personnel stationed at Guantanamo Bay, prison guards who administered physical abuse and the 'punishment chair'", "structuredVictims": [], "structuredPerpetrators": [], "legalBasis": "UN Convention Against Torture (Article 1), ICCPR Articles 7 and 10, Mandela Rules (Rule 44 on prolonged solitary confinement), Fifth Amendment due process, Immigration and Nationality Act (no authorization for offshore detention)", "tags": [ "Guantanamo Bay", "solitary confinement", "torture", "ACLU", "Center for Constitutional Rights", "punishment chair", "offshore detention", "Fifth Amendment" ], "keyPoints": [ "Approximately 500 immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay Migrant Operations Center since January 2025, with executive order calling for expansion to 30,000-person capacity.", "Detainees held in solitary, windowless cells for 23+ hours per day, constantly shackled, subjected to invasive strip searches and a 'punishment chair' for hours as punishment.", "Reports of physical abuse including guards fracturing a detainee's hand by slamming a radio onto it, withholding water as retaliation, and threats to shoot detainees.", "Multiple suicide attempts reported due to conditions. Detainees denied all contact with family members and face extreme barriers to legal representation.", "ACLU, CCR, and IRAP filed federal lawsuits arguing the INA does not authorize detention of noncitizens outside US territory and that conditions violate the Fifth Amendment." ], "sourceCount": 7, "documentCount": 2, "updateCount": 0, "warCrimeClassification": "probable", "internationalLaw": [ { "statute": "UN Convention Against Torture", "article": "Article 1", "provision": "Prohibition of torture, including severe physical or mental suffering intentionally inflicted by a public official" }, { "statute": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", "article": "Article 7", "provision": "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" }, { "statute": "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", "article": "Article 10", "provision": "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person" }, { "statute": "UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules)", "article": "Rule 44", "provision": "Prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 consecutive days constitutes torture or cruel treatment" }, { "statute": "UDHR", "article": "Article 5", "provision": "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" } ], "iccRelevance": false, "legalAnalyses": [ { "title": "Gutierrez v. Noem", "url": "https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/gutierrez-v-noem", "organization": "Center for Constitutional Rights" }, { "title": "Luna Gutierrez v. Noem 1:25-cv-01766 (D.D.C.)", "url": "https://clearinghouse.net/case/46668/", "organization": "Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse" }, { "title": "U.S. Civil Rights Groups Sue Over Migrant Transfers to Guantanamo", "url": "https://www.asil.org/ILIB/us-civil-rights-groups-sue-over-migrant-transfers-guant%C3%A1namo", "organization": "American Society of International Law" } ], "description": "Approximately 500 immigrants have been transferred to the Guantanamo Bay Migrant Operations Center since January 2025, where they are held in solitary confinement for 23+ hours per day in windowless cells, subjected to a 'punishment chair,' strip searches, physical abuse, and denied contact with families or attorneys. Multiple federal lawsuits by ACLU, CCR, and IRAP challenge the detention as unlawful.", "postureNote": "Multiple lawsuits are pending in federal court. The ACLU class action Gutierrez v. Noem challenges the legality of the entire offshore detention program. A temporary order has protected a subset of plaintiffs from transfer, but the broader program continues.", "relatedIncidents": [ "cecot-deportation-torture", "alien-enemies-act-mass-deportations", "family-separations-child-detention" ], "sources": [ { "url": "https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/groups-sue-trump-administration-over-unlawful-detention-of-immigrants-at-guantanamo-bay", "title": "Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Unlawful Detention of Immigrants at Guantanamo Bay", "publisher": "ACLU" }, { "url": "https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/gutierrez-v-noem", "title": "Gutierrez v. Noem", "publisher": "Center for Constitutional Rights" }, { "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/03/01/g-s1-51567/aclu-sue-trump-migrants-guantanamo", "title": "ACLU and other advocates sue to block migrants from being sent to Guantanamo Bay", "publisher": "NPR" }, { "url": "https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/02/attorneys-are-suing-keep-10-migrants-out-of-guantanamo-bay-others-say-they-were-abused-there.html", "title": "Attorneys Are Suing to Keep 10 Migrants out of Guantanamo Bay as Others Say They Were Abused There", "publisher": "Military.com" }, { "url": "https://www.asil.org/ILIB/us-civil-rights-groups-sue-over-migrant-transfers-guant%C3%A1namo", "title": "U.S. Civil Rights Groups Sue Over Migrant Transfers to Guantanamo", "publisher": "American Society of International Law" }, { "url": "https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/civil-rights-groups-sue-compel-trump-admin-release-info-detention", "title": "Civil Rights Groups Sue to Compel Trump Admin to Release Info on Detention of Immigrants at Guantanamo", "publisher": "Center for Constitutional Rights" }, { "url": "https://refugeerights.org/news-resources/luna-gutierrez-v-noem-stopping-the-offshore-detention-of-immigrants-at-guantanamo-bay", "title": "Luna Gutierrez v. Noem: Stopping the Offshore Detention of Immigrants at Guantanamo Bay", "publisher": "International Refugee Assistance Project" } ], "documents": [ { "title": "ACLU Lawsuit to Halt Transfer of Immigrants to Guantanamo Bay", "url": "https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/groups-sue-trump-administration-to-halt-transfer-of-immigrants-from-u-s-to-guantanamo-bay", "publisher": "ACLU", "type": "Legal filing", "note": "Class action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of offshore immigrant detention at Guantanamo." }, { "title": "CCR FOIA Lawsuit for Guantanamo Detention Information", "url": "https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/civil-rights-groups-sue-compel-trump-admin-release-info-detention", "publisher": "Center for Constitutional Rights", "type": "Legal filing", "note": "FOIA lawsuit to compel disclosure of conditions and policies at Guantanamo immigration detention." } ], "timeline": [ { "date": "2025-01-29", "title": "Executive order to expand Guantanamo migrant detention", "summary": "Trump issues executive order directing expansion of the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center to 'full capacity,' with a target of 30,000 detainees." }, { "date": "2025-02-04", "title": "First migrant transfer flight to Guantanamo", "summary": "The first flight transferring immigrants from the US mainland to Guantanamo Bay detention arrives. Military tents are erected for housing." }, { "date": "2025-02-12", "title": "ACLU and advocates sue for access to Guantanamo detainees", "summary": "Immigrants' rights advocates file federal lawsuit for access to immigrants transferred to Guantanamo Bay, citing complete lack of legal counsel and family contact." }, { "date": "2025-03-01", "title": "Federal lawsuit challenges Guantanamo detention as unconstitutional", "summary": "ACLU, CCR, IRAP, and ACLU-DC file Gutierrez v. Noem challenging the transfer policy as violating the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fifth Amendment." }, { "date": "2025-03-05", "title": "Court temporarily protects 10 immigrants from Guantanamo transfer", "summary": "An immigration court rules that 10 immigrants who are plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit will not be transferred to Guantanamo Bay pending litigation." }, { "date": "2025-06-04", "title": "CCR files FOIA lawsuit for detention information", "summary": "Center for Constitutional Rights sues the Trump administration to compel release of information about conditions and policies at the Guantanamo immigrant detention facility." } ], "updateLog": [], "contentHtml": "Beginning in late January 2025, the Trump administration began transferring immigrants from the US mainland to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba for detention at the newly designated Migrant Operations Center (GMOC). On January 29, 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing expansion of the facility to \"full capacity,\" with a stated target of holding up to 30,000 detainees. The first transfer flight arrived on February 4, 2025.
\nBy mid-2025, approximately 500 immigrants had been transferred to the facility. Reports from detainees and their legal representatives describe conditions that human rights organizations characterize as amounting to torture under international law.
\nDetainees are held in solitary, windowless cells for at least 23 hours per day. They are constantly shackled when outside their cells and subjected to invasive strip searches. Guards employ a \"punishment chair\" — a restraint device in which detainees are immobilized for hours — as a disciplinary measure for minor infractions or for requesting medical assistance.
\nReports document systematic physical and verbal abuse by guards, including: fracturing a detainee's hand by slamming a radio onto it, withholding water as retaliation, and threatening to shoot detainees. Detainees are denied all contact with family members and face extreme barriers to accessing legal counsel. Several detainees have attempted suicide.
\nThe conditions described — particularly prolonged solitary confinement exceeding 15 consecutive days — meet the definition of torture or cruel treatment under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Mandela Rules).
\nMultiple federal lawsuits challenge the Guantanamo detention program:
\nGutierrez v. Noem (filed March 1, 2025): The ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project, and ACLU of the District of Columbia filed a class action on behalf of noncitizens detained at Guantanamo. The lawsuit argues that the Immigration and Nationality Act does not authorize the detention of noncitizens outside US territory, and that the transfer policy violates the Fifth Amendment's due process protections.
\nCCR FOIA Lawsuit (filed June 2025): The Center for Constitutional Rights, Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Detention Watch Network sued to compel release of information about detention conditions and policies after the administration failed to comply with a February 2025 FOIA request.
\nOn March 5, 2025, a court temporarily protected 10 immigrants who are plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit from being transferred to Guantanamo, but the broader program continues unabated.
\nThis incident receives an extreme severity classification because:
\nOver a 14-month span from April 2024 to May 2025, more than 10,500 people were placed in solitary confinement in immigration detention centers across the United States, according to research by Physicians for Human Rights and Harvard University. The rate of solitary confinement use surged dramatically under the second Trump administration -- the monthly increase was twice as high as the rate between 2018 and 2023, and more than six times higher than during the final months of the Biden administration.
\nThis escalation occurred simultaneously with the gutting of the DHS offices responsible for oversight of detention conditions.
\nThe UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has established that solitary confinement exceeding 15 consecutive days constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The PHR/Harvard report found that nearly three out of four solitary confinement placements in immigration detention lasted 15 days or longer -- meaning the majority of placements meet the international definition of torture.
\nFor vulnerable populations -- those with mental illness, disabilities, or other conditions -- the average duration was even longer. In the first three months of 2025, vulnerable detainees were confined in solitary for an average of 38 days, up from 14 days in 2021. The number of vulnerable people subjected to solitary confinement increased by an average of 56% per quarter in 2025 compared to 2022.
\nThe research documented systematic use of solitary confinement as retaliation against detainees who exercised their rights. People were placed in isolation for:
\nThis retaliatory use violates both the UN Mandela Rules and domestic standards for the treatment of detained persons.
\nPHR documented that solitary confinement causes severe and lasting health effects:
\nThese effects persist beyond the confinement period and result in enduring psychological and physical disabilities, particularly for people with preexisting conditions. Over 44% of solitary confinement placements in New England facilities involved individuals with documented mental illness.
\nThe surge in solitary confinement coincided with the systematic dismantling of the DHS offices responsible for monitoring detention conditions:
\nThe simultaneous escalation of a practice that constitutes torture under international law and the elimination of the offices responsible for preventing it represents a deliberate structural choice.
\nBetween January 1, 2025 and February 16, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 363 pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women. During this same period, 16 miscarriages were recorded in ICE custody. As of February 2026, 86 pregnant detainees were being held by ICE, including 9 in their final trimester -- all in violation of ICE's own 2021 directive, which establishes a presumption against detaining pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals.
\nMultiple investigations by Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the ACLU, and journalists have documented severe mistreatment:
\nWomen reported being shackled at the ankles, hands, and waist during cross-country transport. In one case, a woman who was actively miscarrying was transported to an emergency room with her arms and legs shackled. Shackling pregnant women during medical procedures and emergencies is widely condemned as cruel treatment by medical and human rights organizations.
\nIn one documented case, medical personnel performed an invasive uterine test without the detainee's consent and injected an unknown medication. The woman was later informed that she had miscarried. The lack of informed consent for medical procedures on detained individuals raises serious concerns under both medical ethics and international human rights law.
\nA 2021 ICE directive (Directive 11032.4) establishes a presumption against the detention of pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals except under very limited circumstances. The detention of 86 pregnant women at a single point in time, combined with the deportation of 363 during 13 months, demonstrates systematic disregard for the agency's own stated policy.
\nCruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment: Shackling women during miscarriage, denying prenatal care, and performing non-consensual medical procedures constitute cruel treatment under Articles 1 and 16 of the Convention Against Torture and Article 7 of the ICCPR.
\nHumane treatment in detention: Article 10 of the ICCPR requires that all persons deprived of liberty be treated with humanity and with respect for their inherent dignity. Denying a post-Cesarean patient a bed to sleep on fails this standard.
\nMaternal health rights: CEDAW Article 12 requires appropriate health services in connection with pregnancy. The UDHR Article 25(2) declares that motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care.
\nSince the Trump administration took office in January 2025, at least 46 people have died in ICE custody or detention facilities — the highest death toll in two decades. The calendar year 2025 saw 31 deaths and a death rate of 5.6 per 10,000 detainees, the highest since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. December 2025 was the single deadliest month on record. By March 2026, deaths had already surpassed the 2025 full-year total.
\nThe deaths occurred in the context of two compounding factors: a massive expansion of the detained population to record levels, and a catastrophic lapse in medical care funding.
\nOn October 3, 2025, ICE halted payments to contractors providing medical care in its detention facilities. The halt occurred after the Department of Veterans Affairs terminated a longstanding agreement to process medical reimbursement claims for ICE. The payment lapse was expected to continue until a new claims processing system became operational in April 2026 — a gap of approximately six months.
\nThe consequences were immediate and severe. As a Trump administration source told Popular Information journalist Judd Legum: \"ICE's failure to pay its bills for months has caused some medical providers to deny services to ICE detainees.\"
\nThis meant that at a time when the detained population was at record levels, detainees were losing access to the medical care that the government is legally obligated to provide to persons in its custody.
\nThe death toll must be understood in the context of an unprecedented expansion of immigration detention. Under the administration's aggressive enforcement posture, the number of people held in ICE detention facilities broke records repeatedly throughout 2025 and into 2026. More people detained in more facilities, with fewer medical resources, created conditions where preventable deaths became systemic.
\nThe government bears a constitutional and international legal duty of care to persons it holds in custody. When it detains people, it assumes responsibility for their health, safety, and wellbeing.
\nDeliberate indifference: Under US constitutional law (established in Estelle v. Gamble), the government's deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of persons in custody constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The knowing failure to fund medical care for months while deaths mounted raises serious deliberate indifference concerns.
\nInternational obligations: The ICCPR Article 10 requires that all persons deprived of liberty be treated with humanity and respect for their inherent dignity. The Mandela Rules (Rule 24) establish that healthcare in detention is a state responsibility and must meet community standards. A six-month payment lapse that causes providers to deny services fails both standards.
\nIn January and February 2026, under a secret agreement between the United States and Cameroon, the US deported 17 people to Cameroon who were nationals of nine different African countries: Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. None were Cameroonian nationals.
\nThe deportees included asylum seekers, individuals with court-ordered protections against return to their home countries due to fear of persecution or torture, and at least one stateless person. By sending them to Cameroon rather than their countries of origin, the US circumvented specific judicial orders prohibiting their deportation.
\nHuman Rights Watch documented systematic abuses against deportees immediately upon arrival:
\nWhen journalists attempted to interview deportees to document their conditions, Cameroonian authorities detained the reporters. The suppression of press coverage further obscures the scope of abuses and prevents accountability.
\nThe deportation agreement between the US and Cameroon has not been made public. Unlike some other third-country agreements (such as Rwanda, which was documented at $7.5 million), the terms, financial arrangements, and scope of the Cameroon deal remain secret.
\nCameroon is a particularly dangerous destination for deportees. For years, parts of the country have been wracked by violence and armed conflict. The Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions has involved systematic government repression, and armed groups and government forces have committed widespread abuses including torture in detention, extrajudicial killings, and attacks on civilians.
\nThe US State Department's own human rights reports document significant problems in Cameroon, including arbitrary arrest, prolonged pretrial detention, and torture by security forces.
\n