29-Year-Old Dies After Alleged Medical Neglect at ICE Detention Center
Prisciliano Trejo Ricano died July 24, 2026, nine days after being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He was 29. His family and advocacy organizations allege he was denied medical care for eight days while detained at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center, despite repeatedly reporting severe symptoms including coughing blood, pain, and a bruise that would not heal.
Trejo Ricano was arrested June 19, 2026, in Durham, North Carolina, on charges including DWI and hit-and-run. Durham County Sheriff’s Department transferred him to ICE on June 25. He was admitted to Stewart Detention Center on June 27.
According to his family, Trejo Ricano first complained of feeling unwell on July 6 or July 7. His father, Prisciliano Trejo Ricano Sr., told Newsweek his son asked for medical attention repeatedly. “Every day I asked him” whether he had requested help, the father said. “Every day he told me the same thing, that no one attends to him.”
On July 10, Trejo Ricano turned 29 in detention. Two days later, he posted on Facebook: “This week I’ve been dealing with a severe sore throat, coughing up blood in the morning and at night, and very intense migraines, and I still haven’t been treated or given any medication.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson disputed the family’s account. The spokesperson told Newsweek that “claims that he did not receive medical care while in custody are FALSE.” According to DHS, Trejo Ricano received medical screening on June 27 when admitted, and medical care on July 10 after complaining of a cough and sore throat. He tested negative for strep and received QC Mucus Relief Sinus for his cough. Three days later, he was treated “with a saline IV, Amoxicillin, Ibuprofen, and Tylenol,” the spokesperson said.
Advocacy groups say Trejo Ricano was taken to the hospital on July 13 — more than a week after he first asked for care. DHS said he was admitted to the emergency room on July 14. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia.
By the time his family reached the hospital, Trejo Ricano had been intubated and could no longer communicate. ICE released him from custody on July 16 “with an order of recognizance,” according to DHS. At that point, advocacy groups say, he was in a coma. He died eight days later.
His father described him as healthy before detention — employed at a welding company, going to the gym twice a week. “He was a cheerful boy,” the father said. “He always played jokes on his mother.”
Stewart Detention Center, operated by private prison corporation CoreCivic in Lumpkin, Georgia, holds around 1,700 detainees. A CBS News analysis found the facility was last inspected by federal officials in March 2025 and deemed “acceptable/adequate,” though inspectors found multiple deficiencies, including two “primary components” connected with suicide prevention. Since that inspection, two detainees have died by suicide, according to the county coroner.
Advocates have raised concerns about conditions at Stewart for over a decade, documenting what they describe as medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, use of solitary confinement, and forced labor. In 2023, women submitted federal complaints alleging sexual assault by a Stewart nurse from May 2021 to May 2022.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic, told Newsweek the company is “deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual who has been in our care.” Gustin said facility medical staff “immediately addressed the medical concerns once they were presented” and that “any medical diagnosis was made outside of our care by hospital providers.” He added that ICE’s Health Services Corps “conducted a site audit of SDC’s health services last month and found no deficiencies.”
DHS described medical treatment offered to ICE detainees as “the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives.”
Because ICE released Trejo Ricano from custody two days before his death, his death will not appear in the agency’s official count. In June, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy requiring ICE to report and investigate deaths occurring within 30 days of release. Acting ICE director David Venturella said in a memo that “ICE is returning to the standard practice of reporting deaths that occur while an individual is in agency custody.”
As of July 2026, ICE’s official data showed 22 deaths in custody during 2026. Newsweek’s analysis counted 55 deaths in ICE custody under the second Trump administration. Detention Watch Network says Trejo Ricano’s death brings the total at Stewart Detention Center to 15, making it “one of the deadliest ICE prisons in the country.”
The Breakdown
- Trejo Ricano was arrested June 19, 2026, in North Carolina on DWI and hit-and-run charges. ICE took custody June 25. He was admitted to Stewart Detention Center June 27.
- His family says he first complained of severe symptoms — coughing blood, pain, a bruise that would not heal — on July 6 or 7, and asked for medical care repeatedly. DHS says he received medical screening on June 27, treatment for cough and sore throat on July 10, and IV and medication on July 13.
- Advocacy groups say he was taken to the hospital on July 13, more than a week after first asking for care. DHS says he was admitted to the emergency room on July 14. He was diagnosed with acute leukemia.
- ICE released him from custody on July 16. He was in a coma at that point, according to advocacy groups. He died July 24.
- Because he died after being released from custody, his death will not appear in ICE’s official count. The Trump administration ended the policy requiring ICE to report deaths within 30 days of release.
- Stewart Detention Center, operated by CoreCivic, has been the subject of advocacy complaints for over a decade, alleging medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and abuse. A March 2025 federal inspection found deficiencies in suicide-prevention protocols. Two detainees have died by suicide since that inspection.
What This Means for You
This case centers on a federal agency’s conduct — ICE is carrying out immigration enforcement policy set by an elected President’s administration. The question is whether that agency adequately cared for a person in its custody, or whether systemic neglect at a detention facility it operates contributed to his death. The revised reporting policy means you will not see this death or others like it in official ICE data, even when advocates and families allege the agency’s care, or lack of it, played a role. When you weigh the current administration’s immigration enforcement record, this is part of that record — not only who gets detained and deported, but what happens to people while detained, and whether the public gets a full accounting of it.
What to Watch
The family is exploring legal options and seeking records about the care Trejo Ricano received while in custody. Whether they file a lawsuit, and what it alleges, will clarify the accountability claim. More broadly: ICE’s revised reporting policy means the public count of detention deaths now excludes anyone released shortly before dying, even when family or advocates allege the person’s condition deteriorated due to inadequate care in custody. That makes independent tracking by advocacy groups and journalists the only way to see the full picture. A reader weighing this administration’s immigration record should know that the official numbers are narrower than the reality, by design.
