A 52-year-old immigrant detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in California died from COVID-19 after suffering from the illness for days while in custody, according to an autopsy report obtained by Scripps News.
Jose Guadalupe Ramos Solano, originally from Mexico, died while being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Southern California. The facility is operated by the GEO Group under a government contract.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said security staff found Solano unconscious and unresponsive in his bunk before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The autopsy report notes Solano had been suffering from COVID for days. His contributing causes of death were high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
ICE and GEO Group say all detainees receive round-the-clock comprehensive healthcare, but neither has explained whether anyone at Adelanto knew Solano had COVID or what kind of treatment he received. Mexico's president is now calling for an investigation into Solano's death.
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The Adelanto facility has reported four detainee deaths since September. A review of the facility by California's attorney general found insufficient staffing and failures to attend to urgent medical needs. Jesus Arias, who represents the Ramos family as well as two other families of detainees who died at Adelanto, has attributed all of the deaths to a lack of medical care.
"Because of the failures that are occurring in that place, they all died," Arias said. "How many people are perhaps still there, suffering from conditions or circumstances and are at risk as well of suffering serious medical health consequences or even death?"
