DACA Recipient Held at Adelanto Detention Facility Dies at Nearby Hospital, 14th Death in ICE Custody This Year

Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died two days ago on Sunday while in ICE custody at the for-profit Adelanto Processing Center in California, marking the 14th detainee death in immigration detention since the start of Trump’s mass deportation agenda in January.

I wrote about the concerning spike in detention in Southern California over the summer just a few weeks ago, and emphasized that there would be a human cost to these high numbers. With the L.A. Times and ICE both reporting this latest tragic death, we see once again how dangerous detention centers can be.

Data from DetentionReports.com show that the population at the facility has spiked since it first opened at the start of this Trump administration and is currently approaching the facility’s capacity of about 1,900.

See the report for Adelanto here.

These dangers should not come as a surprise, and Ismael’s death, while tragic, is a predictable and likely avoidable feature of rapidly-expanding detention facilities like this one that have come under scrutiny for terrible conditions. See Andrew Free’s work over at #DetentionKills for more evidence.

The Adelanto facility has been the subject of ongoing complaints from detainees, attorneys, and inspectors regarding medical care, segregation practices, and mental health services. In June, Rep. Judy Chu toured the facility and reported that detainees had been held for 10 days without clean clothes or access to phones.

Disability Rights California investigated the facility and reported “grave concerns that the recent surge of individuals being held in Adelanto will only place individuals with disabilities at even greater risk of abuse, neglect, and serious harm. The conditions at Adelanto make it clear that the current system of immigration detention is dangerous and inadequate for all people, especially for those with disabilities.”

This latest death occurred as Democratic senators from Georgia sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem raising concerns about the rising number of deaths in ICE custody. In July, Senator Jon Ossoff released findings from a probe documenting alleged human rights violations at immigration detention centers. This, in part, prompted the Women’s Refugee Commission to create a tracker for detained pregnant women, many of whom have miscarried in detention.

As the body count of our current immigration policies continues to pile up, it is our collective responsibility to learn more about detention facilities nearest us, to learn about (and document) what we can about what’s going on inside, and to raise concerns about the health and safety of people held on civil immigration charges. A civil immigration violation should not carry the death penalty.

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