A 33-year-old Cuban man, Denny Adan Gonzalez, has died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, believed to be by suicide, the agency reported. He is the 18th person to die in US immigration detention this year, according to Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which noted this is the fifth suspected suicide.

Gonzalez was arrested on December 12, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina, for “assault on a female and domestic violence.” He had previously been expelled from the US but re-entered without documentation in 2022. In January, he was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, operated by private prison company CoreCivic.

On Tuesday, he was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at a hospital. ICE did not confirm if he was in solitary confinement, but lawyer Andrew Free stated he had been held in isolation. PHR warned of “a pattern of increasing suicides” due to widespread solitary confinement.

The death toll in ICE custody is on track to be the highest in the agency’s 22-year history in 2026, following a record 33 deaths last year. Detentions have surged under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive, from under 40,000 in January 2025 to over 70,000 in January 2026, per TRAC data.

Dr. Katherine Peeler of Harvard Medical School said she was “not surprised by this death – and that is precisely what makes it so devastating.” She criticized ICE for ignoring evidence on the harms of isolation, citing reports and congressional testimony.

ICE claimed it is “committed to ensuring safe, secure, and humane environments,” stating that medical and mental health screenings are conducted within 12 hours of arrival, with full assessments within 14 days. However, critics argue that oversight has been rolled back under Trump.

Source: www.aljazeera.com