Woman deported before she could see dying husband in ICE custody: ‘I never saw him again’ | US immigration

A Guatemalan man became the first person to die while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Fort Bliss army base in Texas. His wife of 25 years was deported from the same camp before she had the opportunity to see her dying husband.

Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, 48, died at a hospital in El Paso on Dec. 3, as Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates stepped up demands for the camp’s closure amid allegations of inhumane conditions at the camp. DHS said such claims are “categorically false.”

ICE suspects Gaspar-Andrés’ cause of death was “natural liver and kidney failure,” adding: “ICE medical staff ensured that he received ongoing, high-quality care from the moment they were notified of the health crisis.”

The agency published a press release Detailing a recurrence of medical complaints that increased during his 10 weeks in Texas, he said he was treated for “various ailments” at the camp in November, including flu-like symptoms, bleeding gums, fever, jaundice and hypertension.

“On November 14, an immigration judge ordered Gaspar-Andrés to be returned to Guatemala,” according to the ICE statement.

When his condition worsened, he was hospitalized on 16 November. He suffered an infection, eventually resulting in organ failure, internal bleeding, and death.

On November 28, his wife, Lucía Pedro Juan, now a widow, was put on a plane for deportation to Guatemala after being held at the ICE tent facility known as Camp East Montana in Fort Bliss. an account He gave it to the El Paso Times.

The Trump administration earlier this year ordered the construction of Camp East Montana to hold immigrants at an army base.

Pedro Juan was tracked by the El Paso Times to the town of Santa Eulalia in Guatemala’s western highlands, where she told visiting reporters that she and her husband, after being arrested during a traffic stop in South Florida in September, were taken separately to Fort Bliss, where they lived for years and had five children.

“I never saw him again, I never talked to him or heard his voice again. What they did to us was a terrible thing,” she said through tears. He told the Texas outlet in an in-depth interview.

Pedro Juan also said he eventually agreed to be deported to Guatemala because he feared he might die in the harsh conditions of the U.S. camp.

ICE and DHS did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for questions and comment about Pedro Juan.

Gaspar-Andrés and Pedro Juan separately crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without permission more than 18 years ago and lived near Homestead, Florida, where they raised their family and eventually ran a plant nursery as undocumented members of the community. But when police stopped them while grocery shopping on Labor Day in September this year, they were immediately taken into custody.

ICE in question After the initial arrest, Gaspar-Andrés was taken to a hospital in Miami and received alcohol withdrawal treatment and was later taken into custody in Texas.

An autopsy report from the coroner’s El Paso county office ruled Gaspar-Andres’ death natural and attributed it to “complications of alcoholic liver cirrhosis,” an advanced stage of liver damage resulting from long-term alcohol use.

Guatemala’s foreign ministry said it was informed by ICE in early December that Gaspar-Andrés’ health condition was deteriorating.

“We requested an investigation into the causes of death, and the family was informed of the repatriation process,” Ligia Reyes, Guatemalan consul in Del Rio, Texas, said in an interview with Emisoras Unidas in Guatemala.

ICE and DHS officials did not provide further details and explanations about the medical timeline and treatment of Gaspar-Andres beyond what was stated in ICE’s press release. The ICE office in El Paso referred the Guardian to the autopsy report.

“On December 3, Francisco Gaspar-Andrés died of natural causes due to alcoholic hepatic liver cirrhosis,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email. at Providence East Hospitals. ICE medical staff ensured that he had consistent, high-quality medical care.”

The email said of the Guardian’s inquiries about conditions at the camp at Fort Bliss and the care of Gaspar-Andrés: “This is fear-mongering clickbait. As our brave ICE law enforcement agency faces a more than 1,150% increase in attacks against them, the Guardian is choosing to infect them. All detainees are provided with appropriate meals, medical treatment, showers, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and family members. Providing comprehensive medical care is a longstanding commitment.” is the application.” Care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody This is the best healthcare many aliens receive in their lives. No lawbreaker in the history of human civilization has been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States.

Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso and Fort Bliss, has repeatedly written to Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency, and Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, to complain about the camp at Fort Bliss.

“Despite DHS’s claims that inhumane, disgusting conditions at facilities like Camp East Montana are ‘categorically false,’ my own visits and interviews with detainees prove the contrary,” he said in a Dec. 9 letter.

“Never before has an administration so carelessly mocked the rule of law while hypocritically defending values ​​like law and order. From their denial of genuine custodial visits to their brutal treatment of detainees at this facility, it is clear that Camp East Montana is not being run effectively and humanely.”

Escobar said in a Dec. 19 letter that he had not received a response to two previous letters and continued to have “serious concerns” about operations and conditions at the facility.

“I was outraged to learn that ICE’s negligence led to the first known death in custody at the facility since my last visit to Camp East Montana,” he wrote.

He added of Gaspar-Andrés: “He repeatedly sought medical care during his stay; although he required care for increasingly severe symptoms, staff at Camp East Montana transferred Gaspar-Andrés to a local hospital only when his condition became critical.”

Escobar was among a group of US representatives filed a lawsuit The administration has imposed new restrictions and even bans on national lawmakers who use their constitutional rights to monitor ICE detention facilities.

A federal judge ruled last week that the Trump administration cannot ban members of Congress from making unannounced visits to such facilities.

In his Dec. 19 letter, Escobar also wrote: “During my last surveillance visit to Camp East Montana on November 24, I heard from detainees that some of the problems that my staff and I have been aware of since August have not yet been adequately addressed. Problems continue with rotten food, inconsistent access to needed medications, lack of regular access to recreation areas, and inconsistent laundry and cleaning services for uniforms.”

He said he believed the camp was understaffed and that detainees told him they were having difficulty getting updates on their legal cases and were being held there for much longer than the 15 days planned for such a short-term facility.

His letter asked: “What kind of meaningful inspection is being conducted at Camp East Montana?”

Experts have warned that the federal monitoring system at DHS, which oversees complaints about civil rights abuses including immigration detention, has been so completely gutted that it allows the Trump administration to “exploit people with impunity.” This comes as a record number of people are being detained by ICE across the country.

Gaspar-Andrés died shortly before national and local civil rights and immigration advocacy groups accused Camp East Montana officials of mistreating detainees in a letter to top ICE and Fort Bliss officials.

Savannah Kumar, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, said his deterioration in health aligns with allegations in that letter that serious, even life-threatening conditions were not properly treated.

“This raises serious concerns about whether the Fort Bliss facility is on the verge of additional deaths, particularly due to medical negligence and lack of hospital visits as the detainees we spoke with told us.” he said.

Eunice Hyunhye Cho, senior counsel for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, said medical care at Camp East Montana was “worse” than the conditions outlined in the organization’s report. Fatal Failures reportIt was revealed that 95 percent of detainee deaths between 2017 and 2021 were preventable.

Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, said Gaspar-Andrés’ sharp decline “could not have happened overnight” and lamented that her organization was not informed of his health condition to get him to the hospital sooner.

“That definitely took a toll on our team … the fact that this gentleman could have used all of the defense we had on other people’s cases to get him out of the facility, just to go to the doctor and even die with dignity,” he said.