Miami.- A 45-year-old Venezuelan man died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Georgia, in the southern United States, the agency reported this Wednesday, bringing the total number of migrants who have died under similar conditions so far in 2026 to 22.
The man, identified as Jesús Manuel Arenas Silva, died on Monday of an alleged cardiac arrest while authorities were transferring him between detention centers in Georgia, ICE revealed in a statement.
Agents found Arenas Silvas unconscious around 7:46 a.m. (11:46 GMT) while he was on a bus from the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla to the Folkston D. Ray Processing Center, so they requested medical assistance, according to ICE’s account.
Emergency services took the Venezuelan to Irwin County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, at 8:31 a.m. (14:31 GMT).
“It is suspected that the cause of death was cardiac arrest. The official cause is pending a further medical examination,” noted ICE.
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With this death, the number of migrants who have died in ICE custody so far this year reaches 22, following the 33 deaths in 2025, the highest figure in two decades, according to data from the organization National Immigration Project.
The mortality rate increased
In this context, the mortality rate of migrants detained by ICE is at its highest level in more than a decade and has more than doubled since Donald Trump’s second presidency began, Human Rights Watch stated in a recent report.
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The death of the Venezuelan transcends amidst protests over the deaths in the last week of two men shot by ICE agents while driving: the Mexican Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three, on July 7 in Texas, and the Colombian Joan Sebastián Guerrero, 26, this Monday in Maine.
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ICE maintained that Arenas Silva received medical attention and health check-ups while in custody, in addition to indicating that he entered the United States “illegally and without inspection” in October 2021 under the Joe Biden Administration (2021-2025) across the border.
An immigration judge in Atlanta had ordered his deportation to Venezuela last April.
