The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, the 56-year-old Mexican who died last Saturday at the Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo, Texas, was a legal permanent resident of the country, the agency said in a statement.
ICE, however, contended that this immigration status was obtained fraudulently because Andrade-Covarrubias allegedly did not disclose an arrest for property theft that occurred in 2004 during the review process of his residency application.
"It was determined that Andrade, a legal permanent resident, had obtained his immigration status fraudulently by failing to disclose his prior arrest during the review process. He was processed and transferred to ICE custody pending deportation proceedings..." the document specifies.
His daughter, Estefani Andrade, 29 years old, categorically rejected that version. She told the Texas Tribune that he did report that background and that immigration authorities approved her application nonetheless.
Regarding the requests for medical attention for her father within the detention center, she reported that the ICE agents "simply ignored him."
La muerte de un residente permanente legal bajo custodia de ICE reaviva el debate sobre las condiciones en los centros de detención. Sigue todos los detalles de este y otros casos en nuestra sección de
Andrade-Covarrubias was detained on June 26 by agents from the Customs and Border Protection Office while returning to the United States from Mexico through the Juárez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo. He remained at the Rio Grande Processing Center—a private facility operated by The GEO Group with a capacity for 1,900 people—for nearly four months, until his death.
On Saturday morning, he was found unconscious in his bed during a routine check. The staff performed chest compressions and called emergency services, but he was pronounced dead at 10:10 a.m., approximately 20 minutes after being discovered unresponsive. The official cause of death remained pending an autopsy conducted by the Webb County Medical Examiner's Office.
ICE stated that the detainee received adequate medical attention and was seen by health professionals. However, the family told a very different story. Andrade-Covarrubias suffered from a heart condition, diabetes, and hypertension, and had his medications with him when he was arrested. Estefani Andrade reported that the center's staff refused to give them to him and ignored his repeated complaints of coughing, difficulty breathing, and chest pain.
The man had lived for decades in Dallas, where he worked painting apartments and raised three children born in the United States. He frequently traveled to Mexico because he was building a house there, with plans to return permanently to the country. He had a hearing scheduled before an immigration judge for November 2, meaning the immigration process had not concluded when he died.
The Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar, representative for Laredo, visited the center on Sunday and questioned the staff about the medical procedures, although he did not receive specific details about the case as it is still under investigation. "Any death in federal custody is a serious matter, and we need to know what happened," he stated on X.
For her part, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, demanded a "swift, thorough, and transparent" investigation and announced that she will file a complaint with U.S. authorities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it will request a meeting with ICE and will raise concerns with the Departments of State and Homeland Security. With this case, the number of deceased Mexicans rises to 18 who died in custody or during immigration operations in the United States since January 2025.
Andrade-Covarrubias is the seventh person to die in ICE custody in Texas in 2026, and the second at facilities in Laredo, following Félix Alcorta-Rodríguez, a 63-year-old Mexican who passed away in June at the Webb County Detention Center. The first death in Texas that year was that of Cuban Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death was classified as a homicide by the county coroner of El Paso.
The case is set against a backdrop of record numbers: the fiscal year 2026 closed with 37 deaths in ICE custody, according to data from Bloomberg Law, surpassing the 23 from the previous fiscal year. A study published in the medical journal JAMA estimated an annualized rate of 88.9 deaths per 100,000 detainees during that period, a figure that exceeds the highest recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related videos:
Filed under: