Cuban immigrant died in ICE custody in suspected suicide, agency says

By Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) – A Cuban immigrant died in U.S. immigration custody in Georgia in what authorities suspect was a suicide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a press release on Friday.

Denny Adan Gonzalez, 33, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center on Tuesday and pronounced dead less than an hour later, ICE said.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has pushed to detain many more immigrants as part of his mass deportation effort. The number of people detained by ICE has grown from 40,000 when Trump took office in 2025 to 60,000, with detention poised to expand further this year. 

Deaths of immigrants in ICE custody reached a two-decade high last year and are on pace to climb higher this year, with 18 deaths through the first four months of the year.

ICE said that Gonzalez entered the U.S. at a Texas port of entry in May 2019 but was deemed “inadmissible” and deported in January 2020. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 2022 and was released into the U.S. with an order of supervision, ICE said.

Gonzalez was arrested by the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office in Charlotte, North Carolina, for assault on a female and domestic violence, ICE said. He was taken into ICE custody and transferred to Stewart Detention Center in January 2026, ICE said.

Stewart, located in the rural city of Lumpkin, is operated by the private prison company CoreCivic.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, said medical staff arrived promptly and began lifesaving measures once Gonzalez was discovered unresponsive.

“We are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care,” Gustin said. 

Immigrant advocates have long criticized Stewart, which was opened in 2006, for its remote location, restrictive environment and alleged substandard medical care.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A massive Republican-backed spending package passed by Congress in 2025 gives ICE funding to expand detentions through September 2029. 

In budget documents released in April, ICE said it aims to detain an average of 99,000 immigrants in both fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Nia Williams, Andrea Ricci and Mark Porter)