Cuban man says he was locked in phone-booth-sized cage for 15 hours at 'Alligator Alcatraz'
Sep 18, 2026·Location: Ochopee, FL
Country of origin: Mexico

Raúl Suárez Herrero, a 59-year-old Cuban man who moved to the U.S. at age 12 and lived there for nearly five decades, was detained by ICE during a routine annual check-in in July 2025. He was held at the 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention facility in the Florida Everglades, where he says guards locked him in a metal cage roughly the size of a phone booth for more than 15 hours after he prayed aloud for a fellow detainee having a seizure. Suárez said he was kicked hard enough to bruise his leg, denied food and medical care, and left unable to lie down while fearing snakes and mosquitoes entering the cage, an experience he described as leaving him psychologically 'shattered.' A former truck driver who built a business with his brother, a U.S. citizen who died of COVID in 2021, Suárez was deported to Mexico in February 2026 after a federal judge's deadline for his release or removal passed. A DHS inspector general report later confirmed the facility used such small cages, calling the practice 'highly unconventional,' though DHS disputes claims that conditions were inhumane.
Timeline
Sources
- Former ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainee says he was placed in phone booth-sized cage for 15 hours
NBC News·Sep 17, 2026
theboldnews.com·Sep 17, 2026
- Cuban Man Claims Over 15 Hours Trapped in Cage at Florida Detention Center
cubaheadlines.com·Sep 15, 2026·archived copy
- Detainee Reports 15 Hours in Tiny Cage at Florida Camp
phoenixq.ca·Sep 17, 2026
- Deported Cuban denounces that he was locked up for 15 hours in a small cage in Alligator Alcatraz
en.cibercuba.com·Sep 18, 2026
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