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Tag: ismael ayala-uribe

  • Deaths in ICE custody raise serious questions, lawmakers say

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    Southern California lawmakers are demanding answers from U.S. Homeland Security officials following the deaths of two Orange County residents and nearly two dozen others while in federal immigration custody.

    In a letter Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Reps. Dave Min (D-Irvine) and Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) pointed to the deaths of 25 people so far this year while being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The number of in-custody deaths has reached an annual record since the agency began keeping track in 2018.

    Two Mexican immigrants — who had long made their homes in Orange County and were sent to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center north of Hesperia — were among the deaths.

    “These are not just numbers on a website, but real people — with families, jobs, and hopes and dreams — each of whom died in ICE custody,” the lawmakers wrote. “The following cases illustrate systemic patterns of delayed treatment, neglect, and failure to properly notify families.”

    Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died Sept. 22 about a month after being apprehended while working at the Fountain Valley Auto Wash, where he had worked for 15 years, according to a GoFundMe post by his family.

    He had lived in Westminster since he was 4 years old, and had previously been protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. The Times previously reported that his application for continued protection was not renewed in 2016.

    Ayala-Uribe’s relatives and members of Congress have alleged that he was denied proper medical care after being taken into ICE custody in August. Adelanto detention staff members were aware of his medical crisis, according to internal emails obtained by The Times. But Ayala-Uribe initially was taken back to his Adelanto dorm room, where he waited for another three days before being moved to Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville.

    ICE officials acknowledged that Ayala-Uribe died at the Victorville hospital while waiting for surgery for an abscess on his buttock. The suspected cause of the sore was not disclosed.

    Ayala-Uribe’s cause of death is under investigation, ICE has previously said.

    A second man — Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, 56, who lived near Costa Mesa — died Oct. 23, about a week after being detained.

    ICE said Garcia-Aviles was arrested Oct. 14 in Santa Ana by the U.S. Border Patrol for an outstanding warrant, and eventually sent to the Adelanto center. ICE said in a previous statement that he was only at the Adelanto facility for a few hours before he was taken to the Victorville hospital for “suspected alcohol withdrawal symptoms.”

    His condition rapidly worsened.

    The deaths have focused attention on the treatment of detained immigrants as well as long-standing concerns about medical care inside Adelanto, one of the largest federal immigration detention centers in California. The situation raises broader concerns about whether immigration detention centers throughout the country are equipped to care for the deluge of people rounded up since President Trump prioritized mass deportations as part of his second-term agenda.

    “These deaths raise serious questions about ICE’s ability to comply with basic detention standards, medical care protocols, and notification requirements, and underscore a pattern of gross negligence that demands immediate accountability,” Min and Chu wrote in the letter to Noem and Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of ICE.

    The letter was signed by 43 other lawmakers, including Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), J. Luis Correa (D-Santa Ana), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

    An ICE representative did not immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking comment.

    The lawmakers stressed the need to treat the immigrants with humanity.

    The lawmakers said Garcia-Aviles had lived in the U.S. for three decades. His family did not learn of his dire medical condition until “he was on his deathbed.” Family members drove to the hospital to find him “unconscious, intubated, and . . . [with] dried blood on his forehead” as well as “a cut on his tongue … broken teeth and bruising on his body.”

    “We never got the chance to speak to him anymore and [the family] never was called to let us know why he had been transferred to the hospital,” his daugher wrote on a GoFundMe page, seeking help to pay for his funeral costs. “His absence has left a hole in our hearts.”

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    Meg James

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  • Former DACA recipient dies in ICE custody after being hospitalized

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    Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that a Mexican national and former DACA recipient had died in their custody after being transferred to a local hospital in Victorville.

    Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39 was pronounced dead Sunday at the Victor Valley Global Medical Center, according to an ICE statement.

    Ayala-Uribe is now the 14th detainee to die in immigration detention since January, when federal immigration officials began to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

    News of his death comes on the day that two Democratic senators from Georgia sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raising concerns about the rise in the number of deaths in ICE custody, in particular two that occurred at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. NPR was the first to report on the letter.

    In July, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) released the findings of a probe into alleged human rights violations that have occurred at immigration detention centers, including dozens of reports of physical and sexual abuse, and mistreatment of pregnant women and children. DHS rejected the senator’s allegations in a statement.

    In California, the Adelanto Detention Center, one of the largest in the state, has long been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services.

    In June, critics — including some staff who work inside — told The Times that conditions inside the detention center were unsafe and unsanitary. The facility, they said, was unprepared to handle the large waves of detainees pouring into the center.

    That month, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured the detention center with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid concern over the increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside.

    The facility’s manager “has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees,” Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility.

    Some of the detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms.

    A spokesperson for DHS could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday’s death. But the agency said in its statement about Ayala-Uribe that immigration agencies such as ICE and Customs and Border Protection are committed to ensuring the safety of people who are in their custody.

    “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay,” the agency’s statement read. “All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”

    According to the agency statement, Ayala-Uribe, a Mexican national, was being held at a processing center in Adelanto where he had been seen by an on-call medical provider, who prescribed medication to him, although immigration officials did not say why.

    But three days later, Ayala-Uribe was sent to the Victor Valley Global Medical Center to further evaluate an “abscess on his buttock” and was scheduled to undergo surgery for it, the statement said.

    “Ayala was also hypertensive and displayed abnormal tachycardia,” immigration officials wrote in the statement. “At 1:48 a.m. the [medical center] declared Ayala unresponsive and initiated lifesaving measures. He was declared deceased at 2:32 a.m. by medical staff.”

    According to ICE, Ayala-Uribe entered the United States at an unknown date and location. He applied for, and received, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protection in 2012. He was sentenced to three years probation after he was convicted of driving while under the influence in 2015, the agency said.

    In 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied his application to renew his DACA status. He was convicted of his second DUI in June 2019 and sentenced to 120 days in jail, plus five years of probation, according to ICE.

    Ayala-Uribe was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Aug. 17 and transferred to Adelanto on Aug. 22.

    Immigration officials said the cause of death is still under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill of 2018 requires that ICE make public reports regarding any in-custody deaths within 90 days.

    ICE officials said they make official notifications to Congress, nongovernmental organization stakeholders and the media about a detainee’s death and post a news release with relevant details on its website within two business days per the agency’s policy.

    Ayala-Uribe’s family has organized a fundraiser, selling tamales, carnitas and pozole on Saturday, to raise money for his funeral.

    Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.

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    Ruben Vives, Jenny Jarvie

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