UNITED STATES - This month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported three deaths, bringing the total to at least seven deaths in ICE custody since Trump assumed his second presidency. ICE reported Brayan Rayo-Garzon, from Colombia, died in custody on April 8. Rayo-Garzon was in ICE custody for two weeks. At the time of their death, ICE was detaining Rayo-Garzon at Phelps County jail, a jail in Missouri. ICE reported Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, 55, from Vietnam, died in custody on April 16. Nguyen was in ICE custody for almost two months. At the time of their death, ICE was detaining Nguyen in El Paso Processing Center in Texas. ICE reported Marie Ange Blaise, 44, from Haiti, died in custody on April 25. Blaise was in ICE custody for a little over two months. At the time of their death, ICE was detaining Blaise at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida.
Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director at Detention Watch Network, offered the following statement:
“We are deeply saddened and angered by the increasing loss of life in ICE custody. Right now, there are nearly 50,000 people in ICE detention, reaching numbers we’ve only seen in Trump’s first term. Trump’s cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan is exacerbating the detention system that is proven to be inherently inhumane. No one should suffer in these conditions. Immigrants are our family members, neighbors, friends, and coworkers – worthy of dignity and respect regardless of where they came from or how they arrived in the U.S. Members of Congress must do more. We need real leaders who aren’t afraid to unite against Trump and advocate for the rights of immigrants – valued and vital members of our communities. Lives are in jeopardy.”
Research has shown that medical neglect and abuse in ICE custody result in preventable deaths. Additional investigations in immigration detention, Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignores Deaths in Detention, Systemic Indifference: Dangerous and Substandard Medical Care in US Immigration Detention, and Code Red: The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention have found that inadequate medical care has contributed to numerous deaths.
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.