Dying in ICE custody: Inside one family’s story of heartbreak

Key points

• Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died on September 22, 2025, after weeks in ICE custody at Adelanto, California.
• A coroner found his death resulted from complications of a pelvic abscess.
• His family and experts say delayed medical care made the death preventable.

Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old Mexican-born man brought to the United States as a child, died on September 22, 2025, while in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Adelanto detention centre in California. He had been arrested on August 17 while working at a car wash and was later transferred to Adelanto.

His mother, Lucia Uribe, visited him every weekend. On her last visit, she recalled that his hands looked paler, his eyes were bloodshot and his fever was rising. Two days later, police told her he had died at 2:32am.

Medical care under scrutiny

A coroner's report from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department found that Ismael died from complications of an abscess in his pelvic region. His family argues that insufficient medical treatment in ICE facilities allowed a preventable infection to become deadly.

ICE documents show that on September 18, 2025, staff at Adelanto initiated a Code Blue alert and gave Ismael pain medication, an ointment and a fibre supplement. Nicholas Cuneo, an expert with Physicians for Human Rights who reviewed the case, said Ismael should have received a physical examination and antibiotics, and that the death could have been prevented by timely care.

I believe Ismael’s death could have fully been prevented by timely care. It was a simple abscess that was not treated in a timely manner.

— Nicholas Cuneo, Physicians for Human Rights

Deaths and detention conditions

Fifty-three people died in ICE custody during Donald Trump's first 500 days back in office. A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights found that immigrants in ICE custody are dying at roughly three times the rate seen under Joe Biden. The Department of Homeland Security has denied any spike in deaths.

Current detainees at Adelanto described inadequate medical care, mouldy food and retaliation for protesting. Some are part of a class-action lawsuit filed in January accusing the US government of inhumane and illegal conditions. Four men died at Adelanto between September 2025 and March 2026, including Ismael.