In the rush to open a detention camp in the Florida Everglades for “some of the most vicious” migrants illegally in the country, state and federal officers detained a 15-year-old boy with no criminal record and sent him in handcuffs to Alligator Alcatraz, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times have learned.

The teenager, a Mexican national whose name is Alexis, was a passenger in a vehicle stopped in Tampa by Florida Highway Patrol troopers and later handed over to federal immigration authorities on July 1. His father spoke to the Herald/Times and said his son spent three days in the tents and chain-link pens at the pop-up detention center, making him one of the first immigrant detainees shuttled to site.

State and federal officials initially deflected questions or denied that Alexis had been locked up at the facility. But on Wednesday, the DeSantis administration acknowledged that they had in fact held the teenager at Alligator Alcatraz, and said that he lied about his age when stopped by law enforcement.