Another Mexican national has died after passing through a U.S. immigration detention facility. Prisciliano Trejo died last week at a hospital in Georgia after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred him to his family when he was already in a coma, according to community groups.
The case comes amid growing diplomatic tensions between Mexico and the United States over the deaths of several Mexican citizens in ICE custody since the start of Donald Trump’s administration in January 2025. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry has demanded thorough investigations into the circumstances surrounding these deaths, most of which have been linked to allegations of inadequate medical care. The U.S. government, meanwhile, rejects those accusations.
Trejo, 29, had leukemia. He was detained by immigration agents in North Carolina and transferred in mid-June to the Stewart Detention Center, a facility operated by the private prison company CoreCivic. On July 6, he began feeling ill and requested medical attention, but according to organizations monitoring his case, ICE failed to provide treatment for eight days. It was not until July 13 that he was taken to a hospital. Two days later, with Trejo already in a coma, immigration authorities contacted his family and released him into their custody. On July 24, while still hospitalized, he died.
Trejo’s father told the advocacy group El Refugio that his son “was in good health” and that he could not understand “how, in such a short time, his condition deteriorated to the point of death,” according to a statement from Amílcar Valencia, the organization’s executive director.
“Unfortunately, deaths in detention centers have increased dramatically under this government. The Stewart Detention Center is notorious for being one of the deadliest in the country,” the activist added.
Trejo’s death does not yet appear in ICE records. Organizations involved in the case doubt the agency will include it in its official list of deaths because, technically, Trejo was no longer in ICE custody when he died.
“People are dying in ICE custody at an unprecedented rate; ICE agents separate families and shoot people in the streets, reducing safety and sowing chaos wherever they go, whether in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Biddeford [Maine] or anywhere else,” said Setareh Ghandehari of Detention Watch Network. “No one is safe when ICE is present, whether on the streets or in one of the agency’s more than 200 detention facilities plagued by abuse.”
“He deserved to be with his loved ones”
Stewart is one of ICE’s largest immigration jails in the United States and holds an average of about 2,000 people a day. With Trejo’s death, at least 15 people have died after being held at the facility, according to organizations tracking the cases.
“We are devastated and outraged to learn of Priciliano Trejo’s death,” said Priyanka Bhatt, a lawyer with Project South. “He deserved to be with his loved ones while fighting leukemia. He deserved to receive appropriate, specialized medical care, not to be locked in an overcrowded, deadly ICE prison rife with human rights violations and medical neglect.”
According to ICE’s official tally, 22 people have died in its custody so far in 2026. January recorded the highest number of deaths, with six cases, including two that occurred on the same day, January 14.
The picture becomes even more alarming when looking at deaths since the start of Trump’s second term. A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report found that 52 people died in ICE custody during the 500 days between Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, and June 4 of this year. Adding the subsequent deaths of Venezuelan national Jesús Manuel Arenas Silva and Mexican national Félix Alcorta Rodríguez brings the total to 54.
According to HRW, the death rate during this period was nearly four times higher than under the Joe Biden administration and more than two and a half times higher than during Trump’s first term.
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