Deaths in ICE custody raise serious questions, lawmakers say

Southern California lawmakers are demanding answers from U.S. Homeland Security officials following the deaths of two Orange County residents and nearly two dozen others while in federal immigration custody.

In a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Reps. Dave Min (D-Irvine) and Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) highlighted the deaths of 25 people so far this year while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The number of deaths in custody has reached an annual record since the agency began tracking them in 2018.

Two Mexican immigrants — who had long called Orange County home and were sent to the ICE processing center in Adelanto, north of Hesperia — were among the dead.

“These are not just numbers on a website, but real people – with families, jobs, hopes and dreams – each of whom died in ICE custody,” the lawmakers wrote. “The following cases illustrate systemic patterns of delayed treatment, neglect and failure to properly inform families. »

Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died Sept. 22 about a month after he was apprehended while working at Fountain Valley Auto Wash, where he had worked for 15 years, according to a GoFundMe post by his family.

He had lived in Westminster since he was 4 years old and had previously been protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. The Times previously reported that his request for continued protection was not renewed in 2016.

Ayala-Uribe’s relatives and members of Congress say he was denied proper medical care after being taken into ICE custody in August. Members of Adelanto’s detention staff knew of his medical crisis, according to internal emails obtained by the Times. But Ayala-Uribe was first taken back to his Adelanto dorm, where he waited three more days before being transferred to Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville.

ICE officials acknowledged that Ayala-Uribe died at Victorville Hospital while awaiting surgery for an abscess in his buttock. The suspected cause of the wound has not been revealed.

The cause of Ayala-Uribe’s death remains under investigation, ICE previously said.

A second man – Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, 56, who lived near Costa Mesa – died on October 23, about a week after his arrest.

ICE said Garcia-Aviles was arrested Oct. 14 in Santa Ana by the U.S. Border Patrol on an outstanding arrest warrant, and ultimately sent to the Adelanto facility. ICE said in an earlier statement that he stayed at the Adelanto facility for only a few hours before being taken to Victorville Hospital for “suspected symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.”

His condition quickly worsened.

The deaths have drawn attention to the treatment of detained immigrants as well as long-standing concerns about medical care at Adelanto, one of the largest federal immigration detention centers in California. The situation raises broader concerns about whether immigration detention centers across the country are equipped to handle the deluge of people arrested since President Trump prioritized mass deportations as part of his second-term agenda.

“These deaths raise serious questions about ICE’s ability to comply with basic detention standards, medical care protocols, and notification requirements, and highlight a pattern of gross negligence that demands immediate accountability,” Min and Chu wrote in the letter to Noem and Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of ICE.

The letter was signed by 43 other lawmakers, including Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), J. Luis Correa (D-Santa Ana), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

An ICE representative did not immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking comment.

Lawmakers stressed the need to treat immigrants humanely.

Lawmakers said Garcia-Aviles had lived in the United States for three decades. His family only learned of his dire state of health “when he was on his deathbed.” His family members drove to the hospital to find him “unconscious, intubated and…”. [with] dried blood on his forehead” as well as “a cut on his tongue…broken teeth and bruises on his body.”

“We never had the chance to speak to him again and [the family] “He never called to tell us why he was transferred to the hospital,” his daughter wrote on a GoFundMe page, seeking help to pay for his funeral expenses. “His absence has left a hole in our hearts.”