Migrant deaths in ICE custody spark concerns
(NewsNation) — A Canadian citizen held in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Miami became the 11th person to die in an ICE facility since October after he was found unresponsive this week.
The agency said Thursday that Johnny Noviello, 49, died in the ICE facility and that his cause of death remains under investigation.
The death sparked an inquiry from Canadian government officials, who are 'urgently seeking' more information from U.S. officials about the death.
Anita Anand, the Canadian minister of foreign affairs, wrote in a social media post that out of respect for the family's privacy, more details would not be provided about the inquiry.
ICE officials say that any death that occurs in a detention facility is a 'significant cause for concern' and that the agency prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of all migrants in ICE custody. Eight people have died in ICE detention centers this year alone — including four in Florida — according to federal data.
Noviello became a legal permanent resident in the U.S. in 1991 but was convicted in 2023 of racketeering and drug trafficking in Florida, ICE officials said this week. He was sentenced to spend a year in prison before he was arrested in May by ICE at the Florida Department of Corrections Probation office. He was given a notice to appear and was charged with being deported for violating state law.
The number of people who have died in ICE facilities in recent years has grown since 2021, according to data posted on the ICE website. A total of 12 people died in ICE custody in fiscal year 2024, after just four deaths were reported in ICE facilities in fiscal year 2023 and only three in fiscal year 2022.
In Noviello's case, ICE officials said that medical staff responded immediately when the Canadian man was found nonresponsive and began CPR and automated external defibrillator shock and called 911. The agency said that comprehensive medical care is provided to detainees from the moment they arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.
In 2024, an American Civil Liberties Union report indicated that 95% of deaths that took place in ICE facilities between 2017 and 2021 could have been prevented or possibly prevented. The investigation, which was conducted by the ACLU, American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights, analyzed the deaths of the 52 people who died in ICE custody during that time frame.
'ICE has failed to provide adequate — even basic — medical and mental health care and ensure that people in detention are treated with dignity,' Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project and report co-author, said last year. 'Abuses in ICE detention should no longer go ignored. It's time to hold ICE accountable and end this failed, dangerous mass detention machine once and for all.'
The report alleged that ICE had 'persistent failings in medical and mental care' that caused preventable deaths, including suicides. It also said that the federal agency failed to provide adequate medical care, medication and staffing.
Of the 52 deaths that the study analyzed, 88% involved cases in which the organizations found that incomplete, inappropriate and delayed treatments or medications contributed directly to the deaths of migrants being held in ICE custody.
In its official response to Noviello's death, ICE officials said that all people in the agency's custody receive medical, dental and mental health screening within 12 hours of entering detention facilities as well as a full health assessment within two weeks. Migrants being housed at the facilities also have access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
'At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care,' ICE said in a statement.
In 2023, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General report indicated that at least 1 in every 5 deaths at ICE and Customs and Border Protection facilities during fiscal year 2021 occurred because they were not given timely or adequate care by detention center medical personnel. However, the report also indicated that there are no underlying systemic factors, policies or processes that led to the deaths.
Despite the DHS Office of Inspector General's indication that shows no systemic factors that are contributing to migrant deaths, physicians and advocates for immigrant rights continue to take issue with the level of care those in ICE detention are receiving.
'Having reviewed the publicly available death reports for many of the deaths this year, I am worried that there were many missed opportunities for these people to have reached definitive medical care in area hospitals that may have prevented their deaths,' Dr. Katherine Peeler, medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, told NewsNation on Friday.
'As ICE continues increasing its rate of apprehensions and detaining more people in already overcrowded facilities, the quality of care, routine and emergent, is likely only to degrade further.'
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