first met her outside the detention center in November, <\/a>where she made it clear she would do everything possible to bring him home.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m not giving up,\u201d she said at the time. \u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019m the kind of person \u2014 if I say I\u2019m going to do something, I\u2019ll get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, six months later, that determination appears to have paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just hugged your dad for the first time in six months,\u201d Local 10\u2019s Magdala Louissaint told Arianne during the reunion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of myself, and I\u2019m happy to have him home,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
Bentacourt described difficult and traumatic conditions inside the Everglades detention center.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe animals don\u2019t stay like how people stay over there. Every single day you have to work for your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the family and their attorney, a judge recently agreed Bentacourt had been detained for too long, clearing the way for his release.<\/p>\n
Still, Bentacourt said his freedom is bittersweet because many others remain behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI leave a lot of people inside,\u201d he said. \u201cAn old man, 80 years old \u2014 people wish they were here. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what message he had for families with loved ones still detained at Alligator Alcatraz, Bentacourt urged them not to give up, \u201ctry to do the right thing\u201d and follow \u201cyour habeas corpus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bentacourt\u2019s release comes as questions continue to swirl around the future of the controversial detention center. A recent report by The New York Times claimed the facility could shut down in June, though neither Gov. Ron DeSantis nor the Trump administration has confirmed those reports.<\/p>\n
However, vendors told Local 10 they have been informed operations at the facility are expected to end by June 1.<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 After six months of uncertainty, tears and relentless advocacy from his family, Justo Bentacourt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-642703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}