ICE Reports 16th Detained Death of 2026 at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana
Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49-year-old man from Mexico, died on April 11 at a private prison in rural Louisiana. The pace of one death every 6 days continues to hold.
Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, a 49-year-old man from Mexico, died on April 11, 2026, at the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, according to an ICE press release published today. He is the 16th person to die in ICE custody since January 1, 2026. Here are a few key things to know about this latest death. I’ve confirmed with others that there might be some issues seeing the press release for some reason; I'll include a screenshot below.
First, ICE’s press releases are not the full story. ICE’s official narrative says that Cabrera was found unresponsive at the facility. Staff initiated emergency measures and he was transported by ambulance to Winn Parish Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 8:51 AM. But this is likely not the full story. I recently sat down with St. John Barned-Smith and Ko Lyn Cheang, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters behind a major investigation into all 48 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. They obtained death reports, autopsy records, and medical records and sent them to 14 physicians for independent review. In at least 17 of the 32 cases where sufficient documentation was available, doctors concluded that without delays or failures in medical care, the person might still be alive.
Second, about that Winn Correctional Center… The facility where Cabrera died deserves attention. Winn Correctional Center is a privately operated prison in rural Winn Parish, Louisiana, one of the poorer parishes in one of the poorer states in the country. Winn is in what some refer to as “detention alley”—a hub of immigrant detention facilities. Learn more at:
Winn also has a long and troubled history. It was the subject of a landmark investigative piece by Shane Bauer, who went undercover as a prison guard there and published his findings in Mother Jones in 2016 and later expanded into his memoir American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment. His account described violence among inmates, poor medical and mental healthcare, mismanagement, and a facility culture shaped by chronic understaffing and lack of training. At the time of Bauer’s investigation, the facility was operated by Corrections Corporation of America; it has since been taken over by LaSalle Corrections, a Louisiana-based private prison company.
According to the latest data from Detention Reports, the facility holds about 1,577 people. This includes Carlos Della Valle, husband of Angela, a US citizen who has been vigorously advocating for Carlos’s release over the past several months.
Third, let’s do the math again. The math on the pace of deaths continues to be what it has been. January 1 to April 11 is 101 days. Sixteen deaths over 101 days works out to one death every 6.3 days—still hovering near the one-death-every-six-days pace that I previously noted with the 15th death and that has not meaningfully changed. For context, 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention in more than two decades, with 32 deaths. We are four months into 2026 and already halfway there.
A running table of detained deaths during the current Trump administration is below and a screenshot of the press release is available below that.
I appreciate your report on this death, giving Alejandro, however incomplete, the dignity that he deserves.
The US has become death, destroyer of immigrants' hopes and dreams.