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3 People Die in ICE Custody in April as Conditions Worsen in Immigration Jails

8 104
04.05.2025

The Trump administration has created a human rights crisis with its draconian, made-for-TV campaign of mass deportation. As arrests ramp up across the country, three people died inside immigration jails and detention centers in April alone, bringing the total number of people to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since Trump returned to office to at least seven, according to the Detention Watch Network and media reports.

Brayan Garzón-Rayo, a 27-year-old man from Colombia who lived with his family in St. Louis, died on April 8 at the Phelps County Jail in Missouri, where the local sheriff contracts with ICE to incarcerate immigrants. Nhon Nguc Nguyen, 55, from Vietnam, died on April 16 after spending two months in ICE custody. He was being held at the El Paso Processing Center in Texas.

Democrats in Congress are demanding answers following the death of Marie Ange Blaise, a 44-year-old citizen of Haiti, who died on April 25 at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, after several weeks of being shuffled between immigration jails in Louisiana, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Speaking on the House floor Wednesday, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat from Florida and the only Haitian member of Congress, questioned whether ICE provided Blaise with adequate medical care as required by law.

“Marie had been complaining about chest pain for hours,” said Cherfilus-McCormick, who called for a transparent investigation into Blaise’s death. “They gave her some pills and told her to go lie down. Unfortunately, Marie never woke up. Her loved ones deserve answers. They deserve accountability.”

In a statement on Blaise’s death, ICE repeated a boilerplate line claiming that “comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.” The agency used identical language in news releases about the deaths of Garzón-Rayo and Nguyen.

However, multiple studies by physicians and human rights groups have shown that dozens of people have died preventable deaths in jails and prisons run by ICE and its contractors in the past, and advocates say conditions are rapidly deteriorating as the Trump administration packs facilities as part of his war on immigrants.

“Right now, there are nearly 50,000 people in ICE detention, reaching numbers we’ve only seen in Trump’s first term,” said Carly Pérez Fernández, communications director at Detention Watch Network, in a statement announcing the recent deaths in ICE custody on Wednesday. Trump’s cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan is exacerbating the detention system that is proven to be inherently inhumane. No one should suffer in these conditions.”

As existing facilities run out of beds, according to the Associated Press, the Trump administration is scrambling to sign

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