Southern California lawmakers are demanding answers from U.S. Homeland Security officials after the deaths of two Orange County residents and nearly two dozen others in federal immigration custody.
IN Letter Friday to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi NoemU.S. Reps. Dave Min (D-Irvine) and Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) pointed to the deaths of 25 people this year while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. The number of deaths in custody has hit an annual record since the agency began tracking them in 2018.
Among the dead were two Mexican immigrants who had long settled in Orange County and were taken to the Adelanto ICE processing center north of Hesperia.
“These are not just numbers on a website, but real people—with families, jobs, hopes and dreams—each of whom died in ICE custody,” the lawmakers wrote. “The following cases illustrate systemic patterns of treatment delay, neglect and failure to properly notify families.”
Ismael Ayala-UribeThe 39-year-old man died Sept. 22, about a month after he was detained while working at the Fountain Valley car wash where he had worked for 15 years, according to the report. GoFundMe post by his family.
He has lived in Westminster since age 4 and was previously protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA. The Times previously reported that his application to extend his protection was not renewed in 2016.
Ayala-Uribe's relatives and members of Congress have alleged that he was denied adequate medical care after he was taken into ICE custody in August. Staff at the Adelanto Detention Facility were aware of his medical condition, according to internal emails obtained by The Times. But first, Ayala-Uribe was taken back to his Adelanto dorm room, where he waited another three days before being transferred to Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville.
ICE officials acknowledged that Ayala-Uribe died at a Victorville hospital while awaiting surgery for an abscess on his buttock. The suspected cause of the pain has not been disclosed.
Ayala-Uribe's cause of death is under investigation. ICE previously stated.
The second man, Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, 56, who lived near Costa Mesa, died Oct. 23, about a week after his arrest.
ICE said Garcia-Aviles was arrested Oct. 14 in Santa Ana by the U.S. Border Patrol on an outstanding warrant and was eventually booked into the Adelanto Center. A previous ICE statement said he had only been at the Adelanto facility for a few hours before being taken to Victorville Hospital with “suspected alcohol withdrawal symptoms.”
His condition deteriorated sharply.
The deaths have drawn attention to the treatment of immigrant detainees as well as long-standing concerns about health care at Adelanto, one of the largest federal immigration detention centers in California. The situation raises broader concerns about whether immigration detention centers across the country are equipped to care for the influx of people being detained as President Trump prioritizes mass deportations as part of his second-term agenda.
“These deaths raise serious questions about ICE’s ability to maintain basic detention standards, medical care protocols and notification requirements, and highlight gross negligence that requires immediate accountability,” Min and Chu wrote in a letter to Noem and Todd M. Lyons, ICE’s acting director.
The letter was signed by 43 other lawmakers, including representatives. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), J. Luis Correa (D-Santa Ana), John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).
An ICE spokesman did not immediately respond to an email Saturday seeking comment.
Lawmakers emphasized the need to treat immigrants humanely.
Lawmakers said Garcia-Aviles has lived in the United States for three decades. His family was unaware of his serious health condition until “he was on his deathbed.” Family members went to the hospital find him “unconscious, intubated and… [with] dried blood on the forehead,” as well as “a cut on the tongue… broken teeth and bruises on the body.”
“We didn't have a chance to talk to him anymore, and [the family] They never called us to tell us why he was transferred to the hospital.” his daughter wrote on the GoFundMe page.seeking help with his funeral expenses. “His absence has left a hole in our hearts.”
