{"id":414195,"date":"2026-09-29T23:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414195\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T23:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T23:40:32","slug":"activist-confronts-rep-maria-elvira-salazar-over-alligator-alcatraz-nbc-6-south-florida-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414195\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist confronts Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar over \u2018Alligator Alcatraz\u2019 \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A South Florida activist whose father was detained at the state-run immigrant detention center known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz<\/a>\u201d confronted Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar over her support of the facility, as a recent Department of Homeland Security inspector general report detailed significant concerns about conditions inside.<\/p>\n

Arianne Betancourt interrupted Salazar during a public event, accusing elected officials of failing to advocate for immigrants held at the detention center operated by the Gov. Ron DeSantis administration.<\/p>\n

Betancourt’s father, Justo Betancourt, spent months at Alligator Alcatraz. She said she was among those who documented and publicly raised concerns about the facility’s conditions. Court records show Justo Betancourt served time in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and other charges in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the things that were discovered at Alligator Alcatraz was because I was documenting them,\u201d Betancourt said in the video with Salazar.<\/p>\n

In an interview with NBC6, Betancourt also criticized South Florida’s Cuban American elected officials, arguing they had not done enough to help detainees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think that any of our Cuban-American elected officials have stood or represented the Cuban community. They have not done enough for the people in those detention centers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA new federal report is detailing the conditions and costs at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

DHS report found deficiencies in health, safety and medical care<\/p>\n

Betancourt’s allegations were recently echoed in a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report<\/a> that identified multiple deficiencies at the detention center.<\/p>\n

The 33-page report found that Alligator Alcatraz failed to meet several detention standards related to health and safety, medical care, food service and personal hygiene. Investigators also reported instances in which detainees were held in small holding cages.<\/p>\n

The findings contrasted sharply with assessments made by several Republican lawmakers who toured the facility shortly after it opened.<\/p>\n

Salazar previously defended facility<\/p>\n

In a July 2025 interview with CBS News shortly after Alligator Alcatraz began operations, Salazar said the detention center met federal standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a jail, people are in cage[s]. I sat on the beds. They\u2019re clean. They\u2019re soft,\u201d Salazar said at the time.<\/p>\n

She also stated that the facility \u201cmeets the highest standards for any federal detention center.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that same interview, however, Salazar emphasized that the detention center should be used for individuals with criminal records.<\/p>\n

Data previously reviewed by NBC6 raised questions about who was being housed there. In December, NBC6 reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement data\u00a0showed that only about one in four of the more than 6,700 men detained at the facility had what ICE classified as a criminal conviction.<\/p>\n

Salazar pushes back<\/p>\n

The confrontation comes as Salazar has drawn national attention for publicly criticizing some aspects of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies.<\/p>\n

Responding to the latest criticism, Salazar characterized the encounter with Betancourt as politically motivated.<\/p>\n

In a statement to NBC6, Salazar said:<\/p>\n

\u201cMonths ago, Ms. Betancourt came to our office as part of a group of Democratic activists during what was clearly a media driven protest. Even so, our team met with her and offered to help with her father\u2019s case. She declined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar described the confrontation as a \u201ccoordinated political effort with a clear agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other South Florida Republicans also visited facility<\/p>\n

Salazar was not the only South Florida Republican lawmaker to tour Alligator Alcatraz after it opened and publicly express confidence in its operations.<\/p>\n

Reps. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez and Mario D\u00edaz-Balart also visited the detention center during its early months and did not publicly raise concerns following their tours.<\/p>\n

The newly released inspector general report, however, has intensified scrutiny of the facility and renewed questions about the treatment of detainees housed there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Florida activist whose father was detained at the state-run immigrant detention center known as \u201cAlligator Alcatraz\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226,1841],"class_list":["post-414195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}