Judge Orders Release of Cuban National Justo Betancourt After 6 Months in ICE Detention

U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek granted Justo Betancourt’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus on May 13 2026 and ordered the government to release him within 48 hours after finding he had been wrongly detained. Betancourt, 54, a Cuba-born resident of Miami, had been detained by ICE officials on October 29 2025 after reporting for his annual check-in with immigration authorities.

He was moved between detention centers in Florida and Texas before being held at Alligator Alcatraz until the judge’s order. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday welcoming the release. “Welcome home to Justo Betancourt, whose Daughter, Arianne, fought very hard to free her father from Alligator Alcatraz.

” the president wrote. Arianne Betancourt led the campaign to secure her father’s release. She said he had completed probation related to prior criminal convictions, had always complied with immigration requirements, and had a work permit application pending at the time of detention.

In February 2026 she joined the community advocacy group Workers Circle and took part in weekly vigils outside Alligator Alcatraz. Speaking to The Guardian last week, Arianne Betancourt said her father emerged from the facility gaunt and underweight, with hesitancy in his movements and slurred speech.

Days after release he was taken to hospital after suffering what doctors believed was a series of mini strokes.

Doctors were initially unable to confirm the diagnosis because the electronic monitoring tag on his ankle prevented an MRI scan. Betancourt has diabetes. “If he had a headache, if he didn’t feel good, if his glucose was high, they’d just tell him to drink more water,” Arianne Betancourt said of the guards’ response to medical requests.

“I’m furious at the condition he’s in now. He’s not the same person he was before they took him in there, and I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same,” she said. “It’s so much worse than I think most people imagine.

Guys in there not getting food, all they know is being locked in a cage for months, then they’re dumped in a country where they have no family, nothing,” she added. “My dad is only 54, and when he went in there he was sick but he was still sturdy, at least mentally. And he came out like this,” she said.

Alligator Alcatraz opened in 2025 and has a capacity of 1,300 male inmates. The New York Times reported last week that Gov. Ron DeSantis could soon shut the facility down because it is costing Florida as much as $1 million per day to run.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Independent that Florida continues to be a valuable partner in advancing President Trump’s immigration agenda and that DHS continuously evaluates detention needs. Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, which sued the administration over the facility, said the potential closure could not come soon enough.

“The only acceptable remedy is shutting down Alligator Alcatraz and full remediation of the harm inflicted,” she said.