Topline
President Donald Trump on Sunday celebrated the release of Cuban immigrant Justo Betancourt from the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center—which happened weeks ago—sparking confusion about why the president would cheer for a man who was set free from his own administration’s detainment.
Vehicles head to the exit of the immigration detention facility known as “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades.
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Key Facts
Trump told Betancourt, “Welcome home,” in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, noting Betancourt’s daughter Ariane “fought very hard to free her father from Alligator Alcatraz” and telling them both to “enjoy your Freedom together!!!”
Betancourt, a 54-year-old who immigrated from Cuba, was released from custody on May 14, nearly seven months after he was first detained in October when he showed up to a routine check-in appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ariane Betancourt had been fighting for her father’s release—which eventually came because of a court order—and has continued to criticize the Florida “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center and its allegedly abusive conditions, describing her father as being a “shell of himself” upon his release.
Trump’s post appeared to come shortly after a CNN segment on the immigrant aired, and his comments have been met with confusion from both supporters and critics.
Multiple social media users who appear to be Trump supporters criticized the president on Truth Social for appearing to cheer an immigrant’s release, while critics expressed confusion and questioned Trump’s motivation for his post.
The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment on the post.
Crucial Quote
Betancourt is “not the same person he was before they took him in there, and I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same,” Ariane Betancourt told The Guardian about her father’s condition after he was released from Alligator Alcatraz, where she reports he was denied food and insulin for his diabetes and shackled to his bed, while witnessing other detainees allegedly being tortured and pepper sprayed.
Surprising Fact
While Trump’s motivation for posting about Betancourt remains unclear, it comes as Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have started distancing themselves from Alligator Alcatraz, The Guardian previously reported. A detention center in the Florida Everglades that’s run by the state government, it was once hailed by DeSantis and the Trump administration as a key way for Florida to help aid the federal government’s immigration crackdown. As reports about the poor conditions at the detention center grew, Florida moved to shutter the facility, and DeSantis has suggested he’s fine with the failure of the detention center he once championed. “Ideally, I wouldn’t want to be involved in this business at all,” DeSantis said at a press conference in May, before commenting at another event, “If we shut the lights out on it tomorrow, we will be able to say it served its purpose.” Trump and DeSantis are former political rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination and the president once nicknamed the governor “Ron DeSanctimonious,” sparking speculation on social media that Trump’s post about Betancourt could be a swipe at DeSantis and way for the president to deflect blame for issues at the facility onto the Florida government.
Why Was Justo Betancourt Released?
Betancourt is a Cuban national who has lived in the U.S. since 1990, with court documents noting that immigration officials placed him on immigration parole in 2020 after he was convicted of crimes including conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. He had long been able to simply check in with the government, but was unexpectedly detained in October when attending a routine check in, and went on to spend four and half months at “Alligator Alcatraz” in addition to other immigration facilities. A federal judge in Florida ultimately ordered his release in May, finding Betancourt had to be released because there was no possibility of him being imminently deported, and the government cannot hold people in immigration detention for more than six months without sufficient evidence to justify it. “The Government cannot lock individuals in a cell indefinitely as a workaround for a stalled deportation process, nor can it use indefinite detention simply to placate popular opinion,” Judge Kyle C. Dudek wrote. Betancourt will still have to follow the same conditions that he was previously subject to regarding his parole.
Further Reading
Human cages and overflowing toilets at $1m a day: the brutal legacy of Ron DeSantis’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ jail (The Guardian)
Relieved daughter of Alligator Alcatraz detainee gets her dad back (Naples Daily News)