‘Ticking time bomb': Ice detainee dies in transit as experts say more deaths likely
A 68-year-old Mexican-born man has become the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center, and experts have warned there will likely be more such deaths amid the current administration's 'mass deportation' push across the US.
Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado's exact cause of death remains under investigation, according to Ice, but the Guardian's reporting reveals a confusing and at times contradictory series of events surrounding the incident.
The death occurred as private companies with little to no oversight are increasingly tasked with transporting more immigration detainees across the US, in pursuit of the Trump administration's recently-announced target of arresting 3,000 people a day.
'The system is so loaded with people, exacerbating bad conditions – it's like a ticking time bomb,' said Amilcar Valencia, executive director of El Refugio, a Georgia-based organization that works with detainees at Stewart detention center and their families.
Avellaneda Delgado lived most of the last 40 years in the US, raising a large family, working on tobacco and vegetable farms – and never gaining legal immigration status. He was arrested in Statenville, Georgia on 9 April due to a parole violation – and died on 5 May in the back of a van about half-way between the Lowndes county jail and Stewart detention center.
His family say their search for answers has been frustrating, and have hired an attorney to help. Two of Avellaneda Delgado's six children who lived with their father told the Guardian he had no health conditions before being detained – but somehow was put in a wheelchair during the weeks he spent in jail, and was unable to speak during a family visit. The Guardian learned that he was given medications while in jail.
'Junior' Avellaneda, who bears his father's name and is the youngest, said he and his sister, Nayely, were rebuffed several times in their attempts to visit their father during the 25 days he was in jail, receiving emails that said only 'visit request denied'. Screenshots of the emails were shared with the Guardian.
On 4 May, Junior finally was allowed a visit and drove the 30 minutes from the house where he lives with his father and Nayely, in Statenville. At the jail, he was shocked to see his father brought out in a wheelchair.
'My heart drops,' Junior said of the moment he saw Abelardo Sr. 'I'm thinking, 'What's he doing in the wheelchair?' Junior, 32, said he had never seen his father like that. The two sat facing each other, with a glass partition between them. 'I tried to get his attention and tapped on the glass. He was zoned out. At one point, he tried to stand up and fell back on his chair.'
'He didn't make eye contact with me and kept bobbing his head left and right,' he said. Junior asked a jail staffer accompanying Abelardo, Sr to hold the phone to his ear. 'I said, 'Dad, please answer me! Say something to me!' He just said, 'Hmmmm.' It broke me.'
The staffer told Junior: 'We gave him his medication, that's probably why he's that way.' He thought, what medication? His father never took any medications at home, he said.
Lowndes county jail's Capt Jason Clifton told the Guardian that Avellaneda Delgado was kept in the medical unit of the jail. Asked why, he referred to 'a note in the system that says he hadn't been eating enough, and didn't like the food'.
'I don't believe he was on any medications,' Clifton said. 'I don't see anything in the medical chart.' Told about Junior's account, the captain checked with the jail's nurse, who listed five medications being given to Avellaneda Delgado, two of which were for high blood pressure, plus an antibiotic.
The morning after Junior's visit, the local jail handed Avellaneda Delgado over to Ice, for transport to Stewart detention center. Several hours later, Webster county coroner Steven D Hubbard was called to Weston, Georgia, where the van transporting Avellaneda Delgado had stopped on 5 May, after the driver called 911. A text summarizing the call sent by police to Hubbard said Avellaneda Delgado was 'unresponsive', with a blood pressure of 226/57. When the coroner arrived at the scene, he was already dead.
The coroner told investigative reporter and immigration researcher Andrew Free he suspected that an aortic aneurysm was the cause of death. The Guardian heard a recording of the interview. Hubbard told the Guardian he doesn't know where the blood pressure reading cited in the text summarizing the 911 call came from – 'but if that was his blood pressure when he left Lowndes, he shouldn't have been going to Stewart. He should've been going to the hospital.'
Avellaneda Delgado's family only learned of his death because the Mexican consulate in Atlanta called Nayely with the news – a pattern seen in most deaths under Ice custody, said Valencia, of El Refugio. 'You want to know what happened, but you face a system that is stopping access every step of the way,' he said.
Ice's press release on the incident says the death is 'under investigation'. But Clifton and Hubbard both told the Guardian no one has contacted them, more than a month later.
The family has learned there are at least two public agencies and three private companies that may have answers about what happened: Lowndes county and Ice; plus CoreCivic, which runs Stewart; CoreCivic's wholly-owned subsidiary TransCor, the company paid to transport detainees; and Southern Health Partners, the company paid to provide healthcare to detainees in Lowndes county jail.
The Guardian asked Ice, TransCor and CoreCivic about the incident – including whether vans and buses transporting immigration detainees are equipped with cameras. Ice and TransCor did not respond.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, said: 'At TransCor, the safety and security of the public, our staff, and those entrusted to our care are our highest priorities. To that end, we do not publicly disclose how the TransCor fleet is equipped, related to safety and security equipment.'
Transportation of detainees is more under the control of private companies than in the past, said Katherine Culliton-González, chief policy counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. TransCor president Curtiss D Sullivan titled the company's 2025 first quarter outlook 'The Time for Growth is Now'. CoreCivic's TransCor is not the only company growing its transport business under Trump; the Geo Group, which runs 16 immigration detention centers across the country, also has a transportation subsidiary.
Added to the privatization of services needed for Trump's mass immigration push is the decimation of agencies performing federal oversight of Ice – including the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Ciberties (CRCL) and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (Oido), said Culliton-González. In this setting, 'how can we hold private companies accountable?' she said.
The issue of oversight will be increasingly important as more health issues and deaths follow the increasing number of detainees being transported around the country. 'Ice right now is all about more people coming in, and pushing them through [to deportation],' said Dora Schriro, a consultant on immigration and former Ice official.
'As input/output grows – not just in size, but in speed – the likelihood of making mistakes is going to increase,' Schriro said. 'Ice should make sure every person they take from law enforcement is fit for travel – for the length and conditions of being transported.'
Avellaneda Delgado was the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center, said Free, who also wrote about the case for ACPC, an Atlanta-based digital outlet.
Meanwhile, Avellaneda Delgado's children just spent their first Father's Day without him. The day was doubly difficult for the youngest because it was also his birthday. Heavy rains kept the family from visiting Avellaneda Delgado's grave. 'It bothers me,' Junior said. Then he added: 'He was a great grandfather.'
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