Detainment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can mean more than suffering through poor conditions, like expired food and unsanitary restroom facilities. It can also mean death. More immigrants died while in ICE custody in fiscal year 2017 than in any other year since 2009, according to the Houston Chronicle. May was the deadliest month, with three immigrants dying while in detention, including two in Georgia. In fiscal year 2018, two immigrants have already lost their lives, including another man detained in Georgia:
Yulio Castro-Garrido was diagnosed with pneumonia while being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga. on Jan. 7, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency said in a statement Wednesday night.
"After diagnosis, Mr. Castro initially resisted medical treatment which caused his condition to worsen," ICE officials said.
After his health deteriorated, the 33-year-old immigrant was transported to a hospital in Albany, Ga., where he was placed on a ventilator on Jan. 9, according to ICE.
But Castro's condition didn't improve and he was taken to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 17 for additional treatment.
"Mr. Castro slipped into a coma Jan. 22 and never regained consciousness," immigration officials said.
Castro died Tuesday night, they added.
"Given the horrendously inadequate lack of access to medical care at Stewart, many questions remain," tweeted Project South’s Azadeh Shahshahani. The organization released a report last year detailing dire conditions at detention centers in Georgia, finding “many detainees did not have proper access to care and some complained about being served rotten food or not getting their dietary restrictions accommodated.” Not even a full year later, a Georgia detention center has yet again claimed another immigrant life.
Lost in the imminent shutdown news and Donald Trump’s tweet of the day at the end of 2017 was the arrest of Kamyar Samimi in mid-November. Samimi was taken into custody by ICE for a drug conviction from over a decade prior, and while he had already received a two-year deferred sentence and completed 64 hours of community service, ICE was using the 2005 conviction to deport him. By the next month, Samimi became the first immigrant to die under ICE’s custody in the 2018 fiscal year:
The ACLU of Colorado is asking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more information and records relating to the in-custody death of an Iranian man at the private Aurora detention facility.
Kamyar Samimi, 64, was arrested by ICE agents in Denver on Nov. 17 — more than 12 years after he was convicted of cocaine possession in Arapahoe County.
ICE said Samimi “fell ill” on Dec. 2 and although emergency responders came to the GEO Group-operated detention center and started performing CPR, Samimi later died at an area hospital.
ICE said at the time his preliminary cause of death was cardiac arrest.
According to ICE, Samimi first entered the U.S. in New York in April 1976 as a student, and became a permanent resident in May 1979. But in January 1987, ICE says, his application for full citizenship was denied because he didn’t submit the correct documents.
Advocates have been trying to expose the horrendous conditions detainees often face, particularly inadequate access to health care. In a Contra Costa County, California, jail that contracts with ICE, detainees alleged that conditions were so bad, some preferred deportation over staying locked up for another day. And now, two more people have lost their lives while under the watch of this unleashed mass deportation agency. “I want to emphasize this again,” tweeted Garance Franke-Ruta. “The two undocumented people who have died in ICE custody so far this fiscal year came from Cuba and Iran. We all know why people leave Cuba and Iran.”