Venezuelan man becomes 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year

Another person has died in federal immigration custody this week in Georgia, officials announced on Wednesday. His is the 22nd death in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this year.

Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man, died on Monday morning while being transferred between detention facilities in Georgia. In a press release, ICE said Arenas-Silva was arrested last Thursday and had been detained at the Irwin county detention center, a privately run facility in Georgia. He was being transferred to another ICE facility, the Folkston ICE processing center, when he was found “unresponsive” in a transport bus. ICE said the “suspected” cause of death was cardiac arrest.

Arenas-Silva’s sister and immigrants’ rights groups in Georgia said in a press statement that ICE did not provide him with necessary medications during his time in detention for an unnamed condition he was dealing with, despite his family’s pleas that he take the medications during his arrest last week.

“He went without medication during his detention until he tragically died in ICE custody on Monday,” the press statement said.

Arenas-Silva’s death comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, is facing renewed calls for accountability after three other people died in the past week during the department’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE official in Texas. And this week, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by ICE officials in Maine. On Tuesday morning, another man died during an ICE enforcement operation – as the man attempted to flee the immigration officials, he was hit by a semi-truck and died at the scene.

Arenas-Silva entered the US in 2021 and “encountered” border patrol officials in California days later, the ICE press statement said. He was ordered removed to Venezuela by an immigration judge in Atlanta in April. ICE officials arrested him last week during a “targeted enforcement action” in Dallas, Georgia.

When Arenas-Silva was detained at his house last Thursday, ICE at first “ignored” his family’s request for him to take his medication with him, and then only allowed him to take one medication, the Georgia immigrats’ rights groups said in their press release. He later called his sister while in ICE detention and told her officials did not give him the medication he needed.

After he was found unresponsive on the transport bus, while en route to the Folkston facility, staff called for medical assistance and transported him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“I am 100% certain that he did not receive proper care,” Arenas-Silva’s sister, who is unnamed in the press statement, said. “I deeply mourn his passing in such a cruel manner; that is why I will seek justice for him and for everyone else who goes through this, so that other families do not have to endure what we are going through. No one should go through this.”

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian regarding advocates’ claims regarding his medical condition.

The Irwin county detention center, where he had been held, began detaining immigrants again last year. The facility’s contract with ICE had been terminated in 2021 by the Biden administration, after a nurse working at the facility blew the whistle on alleged medical abuse. In 2020, the facility became known for allegations that women detained were subjected to non-consensual gynecological procedures.

A Senate subcommittee on investigations investigation and report found in 2022 that “female detainees appear to have been subjected to excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures”.

“He should have never been detained at the notorious Irwin County Detention Center, especially given his medical condition,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director for Project South, a civil rights organization in Georgia. “ICE’s callous disregard towards the humanity of Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva, not even allowing him to take along his essential medication, is abominable. They must be held accountable. And this agency must be abolished immediately.”

Arenas-Silva’s family is demanding an independent investigation into his death. His death comes after the late June death of Adrian Andreas Florian, an 85-year-old German man, who died in a hospital in ICE custody after being detained in Texas.

The DHS has increased its detention capacity and numbers since the second Trump administration entered office last year. A record number of people have died in ICE custody since January 2025. In 2025, ICE reported 33 detainee deaths, the highest total in more than two decades.

“We must continue to fight for accountability for everyone who has lost a loved one,” said congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on X, in response to Arenas-Silva’s death. “And it’s time to end the use of all for-profit detention centers.”

Deaths in ICE custody have prompted international concern. In late June, Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, raised the alarm about deaths in US government immigration custody and called for “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations”.