More than 40 members of the U.S. House, including 15 representatives from California, are demanding answers from federal authorities about the record number of people who died in immigration detention this year.
The letter, sent today to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, follows two recent deaths of Orange County men detained at the Adelanto immigration detention center. LAist emailed the Department of Homeland Security with a request for comment and will update this story if and when we hear back.
- In September, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a former DACA recipient who lived in Westminster, died in custody shortly after being returned there from a nearby hospital where he had been evaluated for an abscess.
- In October, Gabriel Garcia Aviles, a Costa Mesa resident, died at a hospital in Victorville after being taken into custody during a raid and then being detained at the Adelanto detention center, according to the letter and reporting from L.A. Taco.
Record number of detainee deaths
ICE has reported 15 deaths in custody since January. That’s higher than any year since the agency began publicly reporting detainee deaths in 2018.
“This is now a systemic problem,” Rep. Dave Min, D – Irvine, told LAist. “It’s inhumane, I believe it violates U.S. and international law, and ICE needs to get their act together.”
New data released this week shows immigration officials deported, arrested and detained tens of thousands of people from October through mid-November. The arrests led to a jump in the number of people held in immigration jails, with over 65,000 currently detained nationwide…