Final Hours of a Cuban Man in ICE Custody: A Cell, Resuscitation, and Silence

On the night of April 28, Denny Adán González, a 33-year-old Cuban national, was discovered unconscious in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. According to an official report from Univision, he was pronounced dead 46 minutes later.

Detention center staff immediately began performing CPR. Emergency Medical Services from Webster County arrived to continue resuscitation efforts, but tragically, the young man passed away at 11:11 PM.

ICE later confirmed his death, suggesting that González likely took his own life, although the official cause remains under investigation. Following his passing, the Detention and Deportation Operations Office notified multiple authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, the DHS Office of Inspector General, ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, the Cuban Embassy, and González's family.

From Border Crossing to Incarceration

González's journey through the U.S. immigration system began in May 2019 when he entered through the Hidalgo, Texas port of entry. He was detained by Customs and Border Protection and deemed inadmissible. A judge ordered his deportation to Cuba in December of that year, which was carried out in January 2020.

In April 2022, he was again apprehended by Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, and released under supervision with periodic reporting to ICE in Charlotte, North Carolina, until September 2025. On December 12, 2025, he was arrested by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office for charges related to assault and domestic violence. ICE issued a detainer, and he was transferred to the Stewart Detention Center, run by private company CoreCivic, in January 2026. Three months later, he was found lifeless in his cell.

A Troubled Facility with a Grim Record

González became the fourth individual to die by suicide at the Stewart Detention Center, a facility documented to have at least 13 deaths since 2006. The other two Cuban detainees who died in ICE custody in 2026 were Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, whose autopsy ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation in Fort Bliss, Texas, on January 3, and Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, who died on April 12 in Miami's Federal Detention Center by apparent suicide.

The number of Cuban detentions by ICE saw a staggering 463% increase from October 2024 to the end of 2025, climbing from fewer than 200 to over 1,000 per month, as reported by the Cato Institute.

A study published in the medical journal JAMA on April 16 indicated that the mortality rate in ICE detention centers reached its highest level in 22 years, with 88.9 deaths per 100,000 detainees in fiscal year 2026, surpassing even the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drs. Michele Heisler and Katherine R. Peeler, authors of the accompanying editorial, highlighted that these findings point to "not merely isolated failures but systemic weaknesses in medical care, mental health protection, and mortality review in a population entirely dependent on the state."

As of May 1, 2026, ICE has confirmed at least 18 deaths in its custody for the year, and since the start of Trump's second term, at least 47 detainees have died in immigration detention.