Cuban asylum-seeker who died in ICE custody had begun hunger strike over months-long detention
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released few details regarding the in-custody suicide of Roylan Hernández-Díaz on Tuesday. That’s probably because the details are damning. An internal government report obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals thCuban asylum-seeker who died in ICE custody had begun hunger strike over months-long detention
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials released few details regarding the in-custody suicide of Roylan Hernández-Díaz on Tuesday. That’s probably because the details are damning. An internal government report obtained by BuzzFeed News reveals that the 43-year-old Cuban man was actually an asylum-seeker who, frustrated over his ongoing jailing even though he’d passed his initial interview, had begun a hunger strike shortly before his death. “Hernandez-Diaz's wife, Yarelis Gutierrez, 43, said she last spoke to him on Oct. 9 after an immigration court hearing,” BuzzFeed News reported. “She described her husband as angry and disappointed after being asked to provide more evidence about his persecution in Cuba because it was difficult to obtain, especially from within ICE detention.” All in all, from the time he was initially detained at a port of entry until he died at the Richwood Correctional Center, a remote, Louisiana facility operated by private prison profiteer LaSalle Corrections, Hernández-Díaz spent about five months in federal immigration custody. «He told me he was going to participate in a hunger strike because of the abuse he endured in detention,» Gutierrez said. «He never said he was going to hurt or kill himself. This is all news to me and I don't believe it's true.» Miami Herald reports that other detainees confirmed the asylum-seeker had begun a hunger strike over conditions affecting detainees. “They were hopeful that they would be freed or at least released on parole, but months went by and they were still detained,” one relative said. “In Louisiana, the detainees face very bad conditions. They are treated badly, and the authorities don’t believe that they are politically persecuted.” Hernández-Díaz had tried to be paroled into the U.S. several times, but was denied by ICE’s New Orleans office earlier this month. “A day later, his case in immigration court was reset to January. Advocates sued ICE earlier this year office over its low rate of release for asylum-seekers in the southern region.” BuzzFeed News reports that as of August, nearly 10,000 asylum-seekers have been kept jailed by ICE even though they, like Hernandez-Diaz, passed their initial interviews. This is the second death of a person in ICE custody this month. Thirty-seven-year-old Nebane Abienwi, originally from Cameroon, died after being jailed at another privately run jail in California. NBC News reports that Hernández-Díaz’s “death was under investigation and ICE had notified his next of kin as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, according to the agency.” Read more