Culture

Cuban Immigrant Becomes Second Person to Die in ICE Custody in 2020

Lead Photo: Razor wire is seen on the Metropolitan Detention Center prison as mass arrests by federal immigration authorities, as ordered by the Trump administration, were supposed to begin in major cities across the nation on July 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images
Razor wire is seen on the Metropolitan Detention Center prison as mass arrests by federal immigration authorities, as ordered by the Trump administration, were supposed to begin in major cities across the nation on July 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images
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On Monday, a Cuban man died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a hospital in Florida, just two days after the death of another detainee.

BuzzFeed reports that the 63-year-old man, who has not been identified, died after going into cardiac arrest.

The same day, ICE officials noted that the death of Ben James Owen, a British immigrant who died on Saturday while in custody at the Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny, Florida, appeared to be of a “self-inflicted strangulation.” His case remains under investigation.

The two detainee deaths of 2020 put the number of immigrants who have died while in ICE custody this fiscal year, which started in October 2019, at six.

Last October, Cuban immigrant Roylan Hernandez-Diaz, 43, died of an apparent suicide at a Louisiana detention center after spending months detained and awaiting his immigration hearing.

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