A 45-year-old Venezuelan man died while being transported between federal immigration detention facilities in Georgia, becoming the 22nd person reported to have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2026.
Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva was found unresponsive Monday morning aboard a bus taking him from the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, according to the federal agency. He was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
ICE said the suspected cause of death was cardiac arrest, but the official determination remains pending further medical examination.
The circumstances surrounding his death are now being challenged by his family and immigrant-rights organizations, which allege Arenas-Silva did not receive medication he needed for a preexisting medical condition after federal agents detained him.
His death comes in the same week ICE agents killed two Latin American immigrants in Texas and Maine, while another one died while trying to escape in Florida.
According to a statement shared by Georgia advocacy groups, Arenas-Silva's relatives asked immigration officers to allow him to bring his medications when he was arrested at his home in Dallas, Georgia, on July 9. The family alleges officers initially ignored the request and ultimately permitted him to take only one medication.
Arenas-Silva later called his sister from detention and said officials were not giving him the medicine he needed, according to the statement.
"He went without medication during his detention until he tragically died in ICE custody on Monday," the organizations said.
His sister said she believed he had not received appropriate medical treatment and vowed to seek accountability.
"I am 100% certain that he did not receive proper care," she said in the statement. "I deeply mourn his passing in such a cruel manner; that is why I will seek justice for him and for everyone else who goes through this, so that other families do not have to endure what we are going through."
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, had not publicly responded to the family's medication allegations as of Wednesday.
Arrested days before his death
ICE said Arenas-Silva entered the United States in 2021 and encountered Border Patrol agents in California shortly afterward. An immigration judge in Atlanta ordered him removed to Venezuela in April 2026.
Federal immigration officers arrested him last week during what ICE characterized as a targeted enforcement operation. He was taken to the privately operated Irwin County facility before officials began transferring him to Folkston, near the Georgia-Florida border.
At approximately 7:46 a.m. Monday, personnel on the transport bus found Arenas-Silva unresponsive, according to the agency's account. Local reporting said he experienced a medical emergency and fell inside the vehicle before being taken to a hospital.
ICE said it notified the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility, in keeping with procedures following a death in custody.
Deaths in ICE custody draw mounting scrutiny
Arenas-Silva's death comes amid increasing concern about medical care, overcrowding and oversight inside the rapidly expanding U.S. immigration detention system.
Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights reported in June that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of President Donald Trump's second administration. Their analysis found that the mortality rate had risen to its highest level in more than a decade and had more than doubled since Trump returned to office.
The organizations said the increase could not be explained solely by the larger detained population. ICE detention reached a record of more than 71,000 people in January 2026, according to the report.
The Department of Homeland Security has disputed claims that deaths are surging. A department official told Axios that there had been "NO spike in deaths" and argued that the mortality rate remained low relative to the overall detained population. The official also said ICE provides access to medical care that meets or exceeds standards in many U.S. prisons.
Human-rights groups, however, have criticized the government for releasing insufficient information about the medical treatment detainees received before their deaths. They have called for independent investigations, greater transparency and alternatives to detention for people with serious health conditions.
Arenas-Silva's family is now adding its voice to those demands, arguing that his death may have been preventable and that the government must explain what happened during the four days between his arrest and his death.
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