Pressroom

Washington, DC — In response to another tragic death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on March 16, Carly Pérez Fernández, Communications Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Royer Perez-Jimenez, 19, reported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a ’presumed’ death by suicide. We are equally enraged that a shocking 13 people have died in ICE custody this calendar year — four people in March alone, and 44 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. Under the Trump administration’s massive expansion of the detention system, loss of life in ICE custody has been truly staggering. As Congress continues to battle over Department of Homeland Security funding, the demand to cut ICE funding and repeal the billions of dollars passed in last year’s reconciliation bill remains abundantly clear, urgent, and necessary. We must collectively call for an end to the ICE age to keep people and communities safe.”

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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.