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Denny Adán González, a 33-year-old Cuban, was found unconscious in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, at 10:25 PM on April 28, and was pronounced dead 46 minutes later, according to the official account published by Univision.
The center staff immediately initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers. The Emergency Medical Services of Webster County arrived and continued attempts to revive him, but at 11:11 PM the young man died.
ICE confirmed days later the death and stated that the presumed cause is that González took his own life, although the official cause remains under investigation.
After the death, the Detention and Deportation Operations Office notified the Department of Homeland Security, the DHS Office of Inspector General, the ICE Professional Responsibility Office, the Embassy of Cuba, and the young man's family.
González is the third Cuban to die in ICE custody so far in 2026, a figure that reflects the worsening of a systemic crisis in immigration detention centers.
From the border to confinement
González's story with the U.S. immigration system began in May 2019, when he entered through the port of entry in Hidalgo, Texas, was detained by Customs and Border Protection, and declared inadmissible.
An immigration judge ordered his deportation to Cuba in December of that year, and he was expelled in January 2020.
In April 2022, he was intercepted again by the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, and released under supervision with periodic reports to ICE in Charlotte, North Carolina, until September 2025.
On December 12, 2025, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office arrested him on charges of assaulting a woman and domestic violence. ICE issued a detainer, and in January 2026, he was transferred to the Stewart Detention Center, operated by the private company CoreCivic.
Three months later, he was found dead in his cell.
A center with a history of deaths
González is the fourth person to take their own life at the Stewart Detention Center, a facility with a documented history of at least 13 deaths since 2006.
The other two Cubans who died in ICE custody in 2026 are Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55 years old, whose autopsy classified his death as homicide by asphyxia in Fort Bliss, Texas, on January 3, and Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27 years old, who passed away on April 12 at the Federal Detention Center in Miami in an apparent suicide.
Detentions of Cubans by ICE increased by 463% between October 2024 and the end of 2025, rising from fewer than 200 per month to over 1,000, according to the Cato Institute.
A study published in the medical journal JAMA on April 16 revealed that the mortality rate in ICE detention centers reached its highest level in 22 years: 88.9 deaths per 100,000 detainees in fiscal year 2026, even surpassing the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctors Michele Heisler and Katherine R. Peeler, authors of the editorial accompanying the study, warned that the findings suggest "not only isolated failures but systemic weaknesses in healthcare, mental health protection, and mortality review in a population that is entirely reliant on the state."
As of May 1, 2026, ICE confirmed the deaths of at least 18 people in its custody this year, and since the beginning of Trump's second term, the total number of deaths under immigration detention has reached at least 47.
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