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
