Pressroom

Washington, DC — In response to the tragic death of Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this week and ICE reaching a staggering 16 deaths in just four months of 2026, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened and equally enraged that a shocking 16 people have died in ICE custody this calendar year — and 47 deaths total under this administration. ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country. No one is safe when ICE is present – whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 abuse-ridden detention facilities.

“Deaths in ICE custody continue to skyrocket past previous record highs amidst the Trump administration’s massive expansion of immigration detention and increasing ICE violence. ICE’s immigration detention system deprives people of freedom, isolates people away from loved ones, and subjects people to abysmal conditions, including inadequate medical care and mental health services, inedible food, and racist abuse. As Congress continues to battle over DHS funding, the demands to cut ICE funding and repeal the billions of dollars passed in last year’s reconciliation bill remain abundantly clear, urgent, and necessary. We must collectively call for an end to the ICE age to keep people and communities safe.”

About the Winn Detention Center

At the time of his passing, Mr. Clemente was detained at the Winn Detention Center in Louisiana, operated by LaSalle Corrections. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties issued a scathing report of Winn, documenting a ‘culture and conditions that can lead to abuse.’ The report urged for the immediate cessation of any transfers or new bookings and further recommended that ICE draw down Winn’s population to zero until conditions improved. Some of the cruel conditions and practices reported by immigrants detained at the Winn Correctional Center include systemic medical neglect, racist, homophobic, and transphobic abuse, forced deportations, retaliation against immigrants advocating for basic needs like a wheelchair, and dehumanizing sleeping and food provisions. To continue to detain people at Winn or any detention center is to intentionally put lives in jeopardy.

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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.