The youngest to die was Royer: he was only 19. But José Guadalupe and Lorenzo were not old either; they were the oldest and were just 52. They came from Veracruz, Chiapas and Guanajuato. Most had spent decades doing the work that humble employees do in the United States: in construction, laundries and restaurants. They were arrested while eating breakfast, on their way to work, or because they were driving without a license. The person who spent the longest in ICE custody did not exceed three months. Héber, 34, survived only a week. Several were sick for almost their entire detention, some in immigration centers described as being prepared “to break” those they house. They leave behind the wives they met in the United States, the children born in the United States, the lives they built in the United States.
Five deaths have been confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, and then there is Lorenzo Salgado, who died from gunshot wounds during his arrest, but which ICE did not record as a death in custody. Migratory authorities have also stopped including in their counts, for the past two weeks, those who die outside their custody, for example in a hospital. Six is still an unacceptable tally. Their cases have pushed the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to join class-action lawsuits, to take the deaths to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and now to announce “more significant legal measures.”
Heber Sánchez, 34
On January 7, 2026, Heber Sánchez was arrested in Atlanta for driving without a license. A week later he was dead inside a cell at the Lovejoy detention center in Georgia. He was 34 and had only been in the United States for two years. He was a day laborer from Las Choapas, Veracruz. His family never managed to speak with him after he was arrested. Public information from the DHS records shows that Sánchez entered the Robert A. Deyton detention center on January 11 “with an expulsion process underway.” His medical intake noted that he had no medical or mental health problems, was not taking medication and had no suicidal ideation.
After barely three days at the center, at 2 am on January 14 a guard found him tied to the bunk in his cell with a rope around his neck. ICE records state that staff at the facility and at Piedmont Henry Hospital — to which he was taken — tried to resuscitate him without success. His cellmate said that before he died he had said he felt sick. Heber’s family rejects the idea that he could have taken his own life. “Let justice be done and investigate why he was not given medical care,” his brother Feliciano Sánchez demanded on television. The Mexican government has called for his case to be clarified.
Alberto Gutiérrez, 48
Alberto Gutiérrez was ill for nearly the two months he spent in ICE custody. He reported it continuously, as the immigration authorities’ own records show. The 48-year-old Mexican national had been arrested in Los Angeles on January 9 for not having authorization to reside in the United States. He was transferred to the controversial processing center in Adelanto, California. From the moment of his arrival he had very high blood pressure and glucose levels. He also had a cold. All through February it continued: fever, headache, sore throat, dizziness, body aches, until on February 25 he had to be rushed to a hospital for “chest pain and neurological symptoms.” He died two days later of cardiac arrest. The Mexican Foreign Ministry has requested an “exhaustive” investigation.
He was also originally from Veracruz, but had lived in the United States for almost 25 years. There he had met his wife Patricia Martínez and together they had a son, Erick. He worked in construction and was arrested by immigration agents while he was eating breakfast. “When he tried to run, they caught up with him and restrained him. They injured his arm, his knee and his head,” Martínez told Los Angeles Times, which notes that ICE never informed them of his death: “We couldn’t even see him. My partner was not some kind of animal that they couldn’t let us say goodbye to.”
Royer Pérez, 19
Royer Pérez is the youngest person to have died in ICE custody since Donald Trump returned to the White House. He was only 19. He came from a poor Tzotzil family in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas. He had traveled to the United States at 15 to join an uncle in Volusia, Florida; however, shortly after arriving the man was deported and the young man was left to his own devices. According to his father Manuel Pérez, who spoke to El Universal, he worked continuously in a restaurant but was paid so little that he never managed to save any money.
On February 21 he was arrested for “identity fraud,” because he gave a false name when stopped by a patrol. Records also show he tried to resist “without violence.” He was transferred to the Moore Haven center in Florida. His father says he spoke with him several times from jail. The last time was March 13. The boy told him he had had a hearing but could not understand the ruling because there was no translator, and that he was going to sign his deportation to return to Mexico. On March 16, at 2.34 am, ICE reports say they found him hanging in the shower, that they tried to save him but that 20 minutes later they declared him dead. His father rejects that it was a suicide: “He was healthy.”
José Guadalupe Ramos, 52
“He didn’t deserve to die like that,” Gloria Tovar said in March, her voice breaking, at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles. After having worked hard for half his life in the United States, he died without being able to say goodbye to his wife and children, unable to leave an immigration center in California, with his family not really knowing what had happened to him. José Guadalupe Tovar was 52, from Guanajuato, and worked in an industrial laundry. “He was a hard-working and very responsible man,” his wife recalled through tears; “I want justice for my father,” his daughter Gloria said firmly. “My father was a good dad,” his son José Ramos began carefully in Spanish before switching quickly to English: “He was a good person, he wasn’t a criminal.”
Ramos was arrested on February 23 and transferred to the controversial Adelanto detention center — a place, described by human rights organizations, as “prepared to make people break.” He had diabetes, hypertension and a recent nasal surgery. During the month he was inside, ICE states they provided his medication, but a medical exam on March 23 found “poor glycemic control, elevated blood pressure and cholesterol.” Two days later, “Solano was sitting on his bunk, leaning to one side, breathing and unconscious, with saliva coming from his mouth.” Moments later he died. “We want justice,” his family demanded.
Following his case, the Mexican government joined a collective complaint against the detention conditions at Adelanto. “The recurrence of these deaths is absolutely unacceptable,” said Vanessa Calvo, director of Consular Protection at the Foreign Ministry. “These deaths reveal systemic failures, operational deficiencies and possible negligence.” José’s death prompted Sheinbaum to take the cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Alejandro Cabrera, 49
In the course of five days, Alejandro Cabrera traveled in handcuffs through Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana. He was arrested in a local jail in Cleveland, passed through a Gadsden detention center and ended up at the Winnfield correctional facility. He had a criminal record (possession of drug-related paraphernalia, disorderly conduct and domestic violence) and the United States was set on deporting him. He was from Valle De Santiago, Guanajuato, and was 49. He had spent half his life in the United States, like so many others; and like many, he was sick during the three months he stayed in the Louisiana immigration center. Fever, high blood pressure, back and throat pain. ICE says it gave him medication but that on April 11 at 8 am Alejandro “no longer responded”: he was unconscious, with left-sided facial paralysis, cyanosis and no pulse. They tried to resuscitate him, without success.
Lorenzo Salgado, 52
On Tuesday Lorenzo Salgado was face down on a Houston street, with a gunshot wound to his right side and still shouting: “They are killing me!” He worked in construction and had left early to pick up his co-workers. However, before 7am they were intercepted by ICE. The immigration agency says Lorenzo tried to flee and “rammed” them, so they fired in “self-defense.” The Salgado family does not believe it. It was the same hypothesis that immigration authorities tried to argue in the case of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, even with videos showing the officers’ assault.
“What happened is that my father was followed by two unmarked cars. If my father had seen an ICE emblem or that of any law enforcement agency, he would have obeyed, stopped and not fled. He drove fast because he thought he was being chased and that they would steal his work tools,” his son Ronaldo explained on Wednesday. “ICE did not present itself professionally. The standard is that they must identify themselves.” The death of this Mexican from a humble family is the only one this year due to use of force during detention. That is how his son summed it up, who asks that Lorenzo be remembered: “He didn’t deserve to die.”
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