Guatemalan detainee being held in Miami dies while in ICE detention

Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald on Feb 27, 2026

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A 27-year-old man from Guatemala died in South Florida in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this month, federal authorities said.

Jairo Garcia-Hernandez “collapsed unexpectedly” and died on Feb. 16 at Larkin Community Hospital in South Florida, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a press release. The cause of death is under investigation, said ICE, describing Garcia-Hernandez as an “immunocompromised” man with a “long history of severe medical complications.”

Garcia-Hernandez is at least the eighth person to die in ICE detention in Florida since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. In total, at least 35 people have died in ICE custody nationwide during that same time period — over a fifth of them in the Sunshine State. That total does not include two detained men who died during a shooting.

Advocates, lawyers and detainees themselves have long criticized the medical treatment that ICE provides immigrants in their custody. The Miami Herald reported on two other deaths in Florida last year. While the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office ruled that Maksym Chernyak and Genry Ruiz Guillen died of natural causes, the Herald found evidence of substandard or delayed care in their medical treatments.

The Trump administration has defended its medical care for detainees. The chief medical officer for the Department of Homeland Security said in a recent statement that “the medical care in ICE detention is the best care they have received in their entire lives.” Federal authorities maintain that people receive medical, dental and mental screenings shortly after being taken into custody as required under ICE detention policies.

Supporters of the administration also point out that because there are more people in ICE custody now, there will be more deaths. There were 57,501 people in ICE custody on Feb. 7, 2026, according to Syracuse University researchers, compared to 19,304 people in Feb. 9, 2025.

“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments. Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay,” said the agency in its announcement of Garcia-Hernandez’s death.

ICE did not share details about Garcia-Hernandez beyond his criminal history and date of entry into the United States. Garcia Hernandez first had contact with U.S. immigration authorities in April 2021, who released him in New Mexico. He had criminal convictions for criminal possession of a weapon and impersonating an officer in New York. He had been in immigration custody since last year and spent time in El Paso Behavior Health System in El Paso, Texas, as well as the Larkin Community Hospital Behavioral Health Center in Hollywood, Florida, according to ICE.

In Florida, others who have died in ICE custody in the last year include Isidro Perez, a 75-year-old Cuban national who had lived in the United States for about 60 years; Marie Blaise, a Haitian woman who died at the Broward Transitional Center; and Johnny Noviello, a Canadian national who died in the federal detention center in Miami after cardiac distress.

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