MIAMI – Two U.S. senators are launching an investigation into the controversial Everglades detention center, Alligator Alcatraz. The senators announced Thursday that their inquiry will focus on allegations of torture at the facility.

In a three-page letter addressed to the recently sworn-in Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, and Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Richard Durbin of Illinois expressed serious concern over reports of abuse at the Everglades tent facility.

“There have been credible allegations that detainees at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ have been punished with confinement in a small cage-like structure known as ‘the box,’ where they are held in stress positions with hands and feet tightly shackled for hours at a time, in direct sunlight with no access to food or water,” the letter stated.

The Department of Homeland Security and Florida Division of Emergency Management, which oversees operations at the detention center, have denied allegations of inhumane conditions at the facility, including reports from detainees that they were punished by being placed in an outdoor cage. Neither agency responded to a request for comment.

Since its opening in July, which included a visit from President Donald Trump and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the site has faced allegations of detainee abuse.

A December report by Amnesty International, a human rights group, accused the federal government and the DeSantis administration of “torture’ and violating both domestic and international human rights standards at the detention facility.

The detainees Amnesty International spoke with for their report — which the DeSantis and Trump administrations dismissed as “a politically motivated attack” and a “hoax” — described being placed in “the box” as a punishment for hours while chained, restrained to the ground and exposed to the heat of the surrounding wetlands. Other detainees have reported similar experiences to Miami Herald news partner WLRN.

The senators, ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the law might have been violated.

“Indeed, reported use of ‘the box’ as punishment rises to the level of torture prohibited under” U.S. and international law the letter stated.

Ossoff and Durbin said the conditions described by detainees at the facility violate DHS’s own standards for operating a detention center.

The senators also pointed to other concerns and complaints at the facility, including access to reliable medical care and detainees’ challenges in accessing their lawyers.

Immigration attorneys have complained about limited access to their clients held at the temporary detention facility at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. When the site was quickly built, attorneys couldn’t locate their clients, and people sent to the detention camp did not appear on ICE’s detainee locator tool.

The federal and state governments were later accused in a lawsuit of violating the Fifth Amendment rights of detainees being held at the facility. The litigation over legal access is still pending a decision by a federal judge in South Florida.

Use of “the box” was, however, found to be the most “particularly egregious” of the complaints about the facility, according to the senators’ letter.

The senators requested an immediate halt to the alleged use of “the box” for detainees at Alligator Alcatraz. They also questioned whether the facility was operated by the state of Florida or federal agencies, and if it complied with immigration detention standards.

The inquiry included a list of questions about the facility’s operations. The senators said they wanted answers by April 6.

Amy Fischer, director for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, described the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz as “cruel and degrading.”

“The use of ‘the box’ amounts to torture, period,” Fischer said in a statement to the Herald. “Amnesty International welcomes this needed investigation into the abuse, torture, and rampant human rights violations at Alligator Alcatraz, which has operated with little transparency or oversight.”

The senators’ inquiry is yet another dispute involving the first-of-its-kind facility. A federal judge ordered it shut down in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, accusing the federal and state governments of failing to follow federal environmental regulations. That decision was quickly paused by an appeals court, and the merits of the appeal are currently being litigated.

In another lawsuit, immigrant advocacy groups challenged the DeSantis administration’s authority to detain immigrants at the facility. The detainee who filed the case decided to drop it and self-deport.

Fischer said the human rights organization hopes the senators’ investigation will lead to the closure of the detention facility.

“Alligator Alcatraz must be shut down, now and for good.”

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