DHS Oversight Agency Issues Scathing Report of Conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own Office of Inspector General (OIG), an office that seeks to provide independent oversight and accountability within the department, issued a damning report last week about the conditions of confinement at Florida’s soft-sided immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

The report described the troubling conditions OIG found during its unannounced inspection of the facility in January 2026 and made recommendations to ameliorate the issues OIG observed. Even though Alligator Alcatraz closed in June 2026, some of the issues noted in the OIG report are common among detention facilities that hold people in immigration custody.

OIG’s report provided gruesome details about the conditions that people detained at this facility experienced. Detained individuals were allowed to shower only three times a week, and the showers were infested with bugs. People complained of a lack of clean drinking water in part because the facility gave them only one plastic drinking cup and nowhere to properly clean or store them. OIG also reported that the overcrowding at the facility was problematic, noting that it provided less than half of the living space required by federal detention standards.

In perhaps one of the most shocking findings, the OIG inspection found that facility staff held individuals in literal cages for up to two hours.

The cages were approximately 18 square feet, roughly the size of a phone booth, and were equipped with locking systems. In its response, the facility claimed the cages were “calming” areas, but OIG found that in at least one instance, staff used the cages as punishment. The OIG stated that it had never seen this type of restraint.

The report also noted that people in this detention center had insufficient access to legal resources. Phones for legal calls did not work, and the facility did not have a law library. The OIG report concluded that these conditions could have impeded access to counsel for individuals detained at the facility.

ICE tried to evade oversight and accountability over these conditions by passing the buck. In its response to the OIG report, ICE claimed that the state of Florida, not ICE, ran Alligator Alcatraz under the authority of a 287(g) Memorandum of Understanding. The gray area as to which entity was actually in charge of the facility may have allowed these conditions to propagate, as facility staff told OIG they did not know which standards applied. However, ICE was heavily involved in the facility’s administration. ICE officers were constantly present at the detention center and individuals detained received ICE’s Detainee Handbook.

Unfortunately, some of the conditions described in the OIG report are common in detention facilities across the country. In September 2022, for example, OIG reported that the Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico also failed to meet health and safety standards and limited access to counsel for those detained at the facility. In July 2023, OIG found that the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia also compromised the health and safety of people at the detention facility.

The Trump administration, with the cooperation of willing state officials like those in Florida, is expanding the use of immigration detention at alarming rates. As of July, the number of people in immigration detention was more than 65,000, and the Trump administration’s goal was to reach 108,000 detention beds by the beginning of 2026.

The rapid and continuous expansion of immigration detention suggests a full-steam-ahead approach without any regards for the rights of those detained. When this facility opened, President Trump said he would like to see more like it in more states, praising the compound by saying, “It might be as good as the real Alcatraz.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dismissed the concerns raised in the report. The governor’s communications director said about the cages, “We’d make [them] even smaller if we could.” It is deeply concerning that, despite its closure, Alligator Alcatraz could continue to be a model for states to get deeper into the business of detaining immigrants, while evading responsibility for civil rights violations.

Further, the OIG report highlights the continued need for robust oversight mechanisms, which the Trump administration has worked to dismantle or sideline. A November 2025 report indicates that the president removed 17 Inspectors General, left Inspector General offices without leadership and defunded some of these offices, minimizing their capacity to conduct investigations. The administration also decimated DHS’ Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which investigated civil rights violations and issues at detention facilities, respectively. Transparency on these issues cannot be left to the states, as Florida law enforcement agencies have actively blocked access to records under state law.

Under the Trump administration, immigration detention will continue to expand. Congress has authorized unprecedented funding to DHS, none of which is going to improve conditions at these facilities. As problems with conditions at detention facilities increase, the remaining oversight agencies and Congress must — at the very least — ensure that the lives of people ICE chooses to detain are not in danger.

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Dear Immigrant: Build Your Own People

Letter 09

Re: Build Your Own People

Dear Immigrant,

The community you had at home was built over a lifetime without your awareness of building it. It was assembled by proximity — by going to the same school, attending the same church, growing up on the same street. You did not choose most of it. It chose you through the circumstances of your formation.

In the new place, you have to build community deliberately. Nobody assembles it for you by accident. The people who will become important to you are out there, but you will not find them by staying in your apartment. You find them by showing up to the same place repeatedly until the repetition creates familiarity and the familiarity creates the possibility of something more.

The immigrant community in your city is the most immediate resource. The people who came before you, from your country or from anywhere, who understand what the crossing costs — these are the people who will recognize your situation without needing it explained. Find them. Go to the cultural associations, the diaspora church, the African restaurant where the owner knows everyone. These are the nodes of the network. Be there consistently.

Also build relationships outside the immigrant community. The people who grew up in the country you have arrived in understand things about it that no immigrant, however long-established, fully knows. They know the informal rules, the unspoken codes, the history that shaped the present. They can explain things you cannot figure out from observation alone. These relationships are harder to build and worth building.

Your people are out there. They are also showing up to places and hoping to find someone. Be findable. Be consistent. Building community takes eighteen months of showing up before it becomes something you can rely on. Start the eighteen months now.

From someone who eventually found their people,
A former immigrant

dearimmigrant.com

New Data: U.S. Welcomes High-Skilled Workers, but Path to Permanent Residence Is Growing More Uncertain

Record Backlogs, Visa Shortages, and Increasing Scrutiny Are Straining the Employment-Based Immigration System 

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 18 — The United States continues to rely on high-skilled workers from around the world to stay globally competitive in key industries including technology, engineering, and health care. However, new data shows increasing pressure across the employment-based immigration system, with workers seeking permanent residence facing greater uncertainty and mounting obstacles. 

Two new reports from the American Immigration Council examine a decade of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data on nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions for high-skilled workers. The reports find that demand for high-skilled workers remains strong, with high approval rates across several nonimmigrant visa categories, including H-1B.

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE

But they also point to growing pressure on USCIS as the agency struggles to keep pace with rising demand for temporary workers, contributing to increasing backlogs. For workers seeking employment-based green cards, they face an even more uncertain way forward, due to record backlogs, limited visa availability, longer waits, and heightened scrutiny in certain categories. 

“The United States continues to recruit and rely on high-skilled workers from around the world, but for many of those workers, building a permanent future here means navigating years of uncertainty,” said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. “If the United States wants to compete for the world’s best talent, it needs an immigration system that allows employers and workers to plan for the long term with greater confidence.” 

The Council’s analysis found that USCIS is still approving large numbers of petitions for temporary high-skilled workers. However, the agency is showing signs of strain and increasingly failing to keep pace with demand.  

The challenges become even more significant for workers seeking permanent residence. USCIS is falling behind on employment-based green card processing, backlogs are growing sharply, and workers can spend years waiting to complete the process even after USCIS has approved their immigrant petitions. In some high-skilled green card categories, denials have also risen sharply. 

“These findings show a system in which employers and workers have to spend years navigating a backlogged system. That kind of uncertainty makes it harder for workers to build their lives here and for employers to retain the talent they need,” said Steve Hubbard, senior data scientist at the Council.  

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE.

Top findings include:  

• Temporary high-skilled worker petitions continue to receive high approval rates, but processing challenges are growing. Nearly 98 percent of H-1B petitions were approved in FY2025, while approval rates for L-1 and O categories stayed above 90 percent. At the same time, USCIS struggled to keep up with rising petitions, more than 456,000 for the H-1B category in FY2025 alone, leading to a growing backlog. 

• Workers seeking employment-based green cards face a fraught path forward. The backlog of employment-based green card petitions has more than quadrupled over the past decade, reaching a record 180,439 pending cases by the end of FY2025. At USCIS’s current processing pace, it would take about more than 9 months just to clear that backlog. Many applicants are paying additional fees to get faster processing, generating an estimated $300 million in fees for USCIS in FY2025. 

• Denial rates rose in key employment-based categories. At one point in FY2025, USCIS was denying roughly 1 in 6 employment-based immigrant petitions. In two categories intended for especially accomplished workers, the EB-1A and the EB-2 NIW, denial rates almost doubled during FY2025. 

• Visa availability remains a major bottleneck. Once USCIS approves a petition for an employment-based green card, the process doesn’t end there. Employment-based green cards are capped by law, so workers can spend years waiting for a visa number to become available even after USCIS has already approved their application. By the end of FY2025, more than 642,000 approved workers were still waiting for a visa number to become available. 

“The U.S. government is basically telling high-skilled workers, we want your talent for to build companies, conduct research, treat patients, and grow the U.S. economy, but we can’t tell you whether you’ll be able to build a future here. That is not a serious approach for competing for global talent,” said Wu. “If we want to attract and retain these high-skilled workers, we need an immigration system that provides them with more long-term certainty.” 

READ THE REPORTS HERE AND HERE

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As Federal Immigration Enforcement Expands, New Playbook Helps State and Local Leaders Respond

New co-branded platform equips state and local leaders with practical tools for responding when federal immigration enforcement affects communities  

NEW HAVEN, CT / WASHINGTON, DC — As cities, counties, and states navigate responding to the impact of federal immigration enforcement policies, the American Immigration Council (AIC) and Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) are launching the Immigration Response Playbook, a new online resource for state and local leaders. The Playbook brings together policy examples, legal frameworks, and other tools from jurisdictions across the country to help communities understand their options and make informed decisions. 

The Playbook addresses a need that both organizations consistently hear from municipal and state partners: leaders want to protect their communities, but don’t always know what others have done or what legal authority they have to act. This resource brings that knowledge together in one place — organized for people making decisions in real time. 

“The Trump administration is maximizing fear and confusion to intimidate our communities, inflicting a new level of cruelty with its lawless actions,” said William Tong, the Connecticut Attorney General. “I thank IRIS and the AIC for compiling this comprehensive playbook of strategies and policy tools to strengthen local and state protections against federal overreach. The Office of the Attorney General will continue to work closely with IRIS and community partners to respect, honor and protect immigrants and immigrant families.”

The collaboration combines IRIS’s platform infrastructure and deep expertise in immigrant and refugee services — built over more than 40 years in Connecticut — with AIC’s policy research depth and relationships across its state and local programming to support immigrant integration efforts nationwide. The result is a resource informed not just by legal analysis, but by the actual experiences of offices doing this work on the ground. 

“Local and state leaders are facing urgent questions as federal immigration enforcement actions create fear or confusion in their communities. This playbook brings together practical tools, legal frameworks, and examples from across the country so that local leaders can make informed decisions grounded in what their community needs,” said Caitlin McTiernan, AIC program manager.

The Playbook includes: 

• Real-world policy examples from cities and states that have navigated enforcement actions, community protection measures, and related legal questions 

• Legal frameworks and implementation tools, drawn from AIC’s policy research and updated as federal enforcement priorities shift 

• Links to existing IRIS and AIC resources, including IRIS’s New Americans platform and AIC’s research and analysis 

• Regular updates reflecting emerging trends, new jurisdictional examples, and evolving legal guidance 

“State and local leaders have been reaching out to us asking what they can do to protect their communities. Our research led us to AIC.  Like us, they know that these leaders do better when they can learn from one another. This playbook puts that idea into action, both policy expertise and field-tested practice in a regularly updated, efficient, searchable knowledge hub,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, IRIS Executive Director.

The Immigration Response Playbook is available now at playbook.irisct.org and will be updated on an ongoing basis.  

About IRIS: Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services 

IRIS welcomes refugees and other immigrants, helps them rebuild their lives, pursue their dreams, and contribute to the vitality of their communities. Founded in 1982, IRIS advances economic mobility, legal stability, language equity, and civic engagement through its New Americans platform. Learn more at irisct.org. 

About the American Immigration Council 

The American Immigration Council works to create a more welcoming and fair immigration system. Through litigation, research, and programs that expand access to legal assistance, the Council helps ensure immigrants are embraced, communities are enriched, and justice prevails for all. Follow us on BlueSky @immcouncil.org and Instagram @immcouncil.   

Media inquiries:

IRIS: Maggie Mitchell Salem, msalem@irisct.org 

American Immigration Council: Elyssa Pachico, epachico@immcouncil.org 

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Banking the Immigrant Household: What Financial Institutions Require Before They Serve You

Opening accounts, establishing credit, building a financial footprint for a household with one long-term citizen and one new arrival — this is not complicated work in theory. In practice, it reveals something precise about how financial institutions understand belonging.

My wife arrived with documents in order. The paperwork was current, the status was legal, the household was stable. None of that was the point. The point, as far as the bank was concerned, was that she had no American financial history. No credit file. No prior accounts. No record of ever having existed inside the system it was designed to track. She was, in the language institutions prefer not to say out loud, a non-person.

What banks require before they serve you is not proof that you are trustworthy. It is proof that you have already been trusted — by them, or by someone like them, in a form they recognize. This is the thesis: financial access is structured as a confirmation of prior access, which means the first entry is the one the system is least equipped to provide.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. A joint account is relatively straightforward when one partner has an established record. The citizen spouse becomes the anchor. The new entrant is added. This works, but it positions the newcomer as a dependent rather than a principal — a distinction that matters when the newcomer later tries to act independently. The account exists. The credit history does not.

Building credit from that position requires navigating a set of instruments designed for people who already have some. A secured card is the standard first step: you deposit money as collateral against your own spending, which is a reasonable enough mechanism until you notice that the approval process still runs a background check against a file that does not yet exist. Some institutions decline anyway. Others approve and then report activity in ways that take months to register. The clock starts late, and the system does not account for the delay.

The mechanism here is not malice. It is architecture. Credit scoring systems were built to measure behavior within the system, which means they are structurally blind to behavior outside it. Decades of responsible financial life in another country register as nothing. The immigrant does not start at zero. Zero would be neutral. The immigrant starts at a deficit, because the absence of a record reads as a risk signal rather than as the simple fact of prior life elsewhere.

Who bears the cost of this architecture is not distributed evenly. The household with a citizen anchor absorbs the friction differently than the household without one. The citizen partner can co-sign, can anchor accounts, can lend institutional credibility to the newcomer's applications. This helps, but it also means the newcomer's financial independence is slower to arrive and is structurally mediated by the citizen's prior standing. The bank does not intend this dynamic. The bank simply built a system that produces it.

The institutions gain from the arrangement in ways that are not incidental. Secured cards charge fees. Starter accounts carry restrictions. The products designed for people entering the system are rarely the bank's most favorable offerings. The new entrant pays a premium for access, not as a penalty explicitly charged, but as a structural feature of the products available to them. This is how institutions often work: the cost of entry is borne by the entrant, and the design of the entry products reflects the power asymmetry of that position.

The transferable principle is this. When an institution tells you that you do not qualify, it is almost always telling you that your history is not legible to its systems, which is different from telling you that your history does not exist. The immigrant household is a clean case study in this distinction. The solution the system offers — build your record here, starting now — is also the thing it makes difficult to do quickly, cheaply, or without a sponsor. That is not a contradiction the system is trying to resolve. It is a feature the system has learned to call a process.

What financial institutions require before they serve you, in the end, is prior evidence of the service they are now withholding. Knowing this does not dissolve the requirement. But it clarifies what you are actually navigating, and clarity is where practical strategy begins.