Deaths in ICE Custody Continue

The Death of Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias in ICE Custody

Last Saturday, 56-year-old Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, a father of three, was found dead in his bunk in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo, Texas. His daughter told The New York Times that he suffered from diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, and had complained to her about the lack of medical care at the facility.

This is hardly the first instance of a detainee who died following complaints about poor or non-existent health care. As we have written about previously, the humanitarian organization Physicians for Human Rights has documented multiple cases where detainees received inadequate or delayed health care prior to their deaths, suggesting they may have been preventable.

Mr. Andrade-Coarrubias came to the United States from Mexico as a teenager, and had lived in the Dallas area for decades. According to his family, he held a green card, which means he was a permanent legal resident of the United States. Immigration authorities were attempting to deport him, because they claimed he had failed to disclose a prior arrest when applying for residency.

Deaths in ICE Custody Have Continued to Rise

The tragic death of Mr. Andrade-Covarrubias follows at least 59 previous detainee deaths during Trump’s second term, according to a database maintained by American University researcher Austin Kocher. That is more than double the number of deaths that occurred during the entirety of the Biden Administration. Since we last wrote about this issue, the following men have died in ICE custody:

Julian Curo-Churata

• 47-year-old Julian Curo-Churata, a married father of three originally from Peru, who died at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana on September 29th. An attorney representing his widow told The Washington Post that ICE “ignored Mr. Curo Churata’s urgent medical needs.”

Carlos Josue Marchena-Marchena

• 36-year-old Carlos Josue Marchena-Marchena, originally from Costa Rica, who died at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana on September 18th. His family said that he had complained of not being provided the insulin shots and hydration necessary to control his diabetes.

Lianyong Wei

• 51-year-old Lianyong Wei, originally from China, who died at the Saipan Detention Center in the Northern Mariana Islands on August 23rd. He died only hours after being taken into ICE custody, and the Chinese government has asked the United States to investigate his death.

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo

• 41-year-old father Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, originally from El Salvador, who died at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey on August 1st. Mr. Lopez-Cornejo, who had lived in New Jersey for decades, was the third person to die at the facility in the past year. Multiple federal officials, including New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, have called for the facility to be shut down after hearing reports of unsanitary conditions and medical neglect there.

Why Deaths in ICE Custody Require Accountability and Investigation

These cases underscore the consistent dereliction in duty of the Trump Administration to care for people in their custody, who have both a constitutional and statutory right to medical care.

We should also note that individuals held in immigration detention are being held on civil, not criminal, charges, which means that their detention is required to be non-punitive, even according to ICE’s own guidelines. We reiterate our call for an end to detention for civil violations as well as full and impartial investigations of all deaths that have occurred on ICE’s watch. 

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