Trump’s scandal-plagued second regime produced yet another to toss on the pile: on September 11th, DHS‘s inspector general released a report detailing latest abuses by ICE goons on migrants. Laura Strickler, Justin Goldman and Julia Ainsley report for NBC News:
Some immigrants detained at Florida’s now-shuttered ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ were confined in outdoor cages only slightly larger than telephone booths for more than an hour at a time, according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.
The watchdog report marks the first time a government agency has confirmed the existence of cramped cages at the South Florida Detention Facility. Amnesty International found in a report published in December, based on interviews with detainees and a tour of the facility, that the cages were used to punish detainees and amounted to torture, sparking a congressional probe.
Laura Strickler, Justin Goldman and Julia Ainsley for NBC News
In standard-Orwellian fashion, ICE staff referred to the phone-booth-sized cages as “calming areas.”
DHS IG inspectors visited the facility in January as part of its Congressional mandate to inspect detention facilities. The inspector general’s report found the ‘small metal enclosures’ were roughly 4-by-4, or 16 square feet, and facility staff members described them as ‘calming areas’ for ‘detainees to de-escalate and have time alone.’
Laura Strickler, Justin Goldman and Julia Ainsley for NBC News
The findings were released by DHS IG Joseph Cuffari, which is notable because he was cited for misconduct in office during Secret Service‘s texts scandal post-January 6th.
The findings are a rare instance when a federal inspector general has publicly criticized the Trump administration. Since he returned to office in 2025, Trump has fired at least 18 inspectors general… Homeland Security’s inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, is one of the few Cabinet-level inspectors general who wasn’t fired in the purge.
Laura Strickler, Justin Goldman and Julia Ainsley for NBC News
Sacking more than a dozen IGs but keeping Cuffari, loyal foot soldier at DHS, should’ve set off far more alarm bells. (The firings themselves were illegal, according to Washington Post.) Then again, mainstream media largely sat on thumbs for months after Amnesty International published their scathing report about abuse at Alligator Auschwitz last December, linked below, which is itself a separate scandal (see my footnote for more). Independent reporters like Spencer Ackerman gave us the coverage that was severely lacking elsewhere.
Early days in Trump’s second regime, our TrumpFile founder documented whistleblower testimony from Reddit/Twitter warning that Office of Personnel Management was being gutted to clear the way for abuses. Later, in August 2025, another whistleblower noted abuses inside Alligator Auschwitz, including holding cells that she referred to as “oversized kennels.” And in separate reporting from Miami Herald, ICE simply “lost track of” more than 1,000 migrants they detained.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
I would call this “another huge embarrassment for Don Trump and Ron DeSantis” but the totality of their miserable lives revolves around rake-stepping and then denying anything illegal or wrong ever happened. (Then going on Fixed Noise for a live-hit of course.)
The point of legacy media’s “sins of omission” is that it’s a willful operation, a choice, which ultimately remains invisible because there’s no content or context to scrutinize. Shareholder-based big conglomerates are averse to controversy (in addition to offending Donald) so, conveniently, they’re just not willing to risk even a $10 drop in value by reporting the truth.
And that’s why Amnesty International’s report was largely skipped over by corporate media. But plenty of indie journos covered it.
Imagine being made to spend 11 days inside a coffin. Imagine being made to spend more than a day inside a box barely two feet large in any direction. Imagine having to curl up, unable to extend any of your extremities, in the claustrophobic conditions of such a box, for more than a cumulative day. You can see pictures Abu Zubaydah drew of himself in the small box. Now imagine this being done to someone you love. I say all this because the following description appears in an Amnesty International report released Friday into the conditions of confinement for migrants at Alligator Alcatraz:
Spencer Ackerman, Forever Wars
Could it be that the details of Amnesty’s report were so jarring, so gut-wrenching and evil, that they simply didn’t want to touch it?
We need a New Deal for journalism, one that demands ALL news outlets act according to a common set of principles and standards. These atrocities were committed in America’s name; ABC/Disney, CBS/Skydance, NBC/Comcast are American companies second. They answer to shareholders first. And that’s why news in the modern era cannot, and must not, be subject to the profit motive.
Last point: feels notable that media omissions often track with Republican politicians’ denials. DeSantis—himself mired in scandal surrounding Hope Florida funds diversion—boasted about Alligator Auschwitz’s “successes” and openly admitted he hadn’t read the inspector general’s report. Ron and his cronies were responsible for running the concentration camp on behalf of Donny’s mafia (itself a murky arrangement rife for corruption), and now they are pointing to each other while denying everything.
This is the type of “accountability diffusion” that Republicans often use. And media of course is very often along for the ride.
SOURCES
- NBC News
- Amnesty International report (PDF)
- r/Fednews on Reddit
- Forever Wars
- Washington Post (Archived)
