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A 19-year-old Mexican migrant died at a county jail in Florida that has been holding immigrant detainees, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.
According to ICE, Royer Perez-Jimenez “died of presumed suicide,” although his official cause of death remains under investigation.
The death of Perez-Jimenez on Monday is the 46th reported under ICE custody since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2025, according to a count by The Associated Press.
Perez-Jimenez is also the second person to die in ICE custody this week, after an Afghan immigrant — whose family said he had been evacuated from his country after working for years with U.S. forces — died in a Texas hospital after being detained by immigration authorities.
Since the beginning of this year, 13 immigrants have died in ICE custody. Perez-Jimenez is the youngest to die in custody since the beginning of Trump’s second term and his immigration crackdown.
Little information provided
The Office of the District 21 Medical Examiner did not respond to the AP’s request for the autopsy report.
The Florida prosecutor’s office referred any requests for information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field agent Darius Reeves told CBC’s Jonathan Montpetit that he no longer recognizes the agency he spent 20 years working for.
The Mexican government said in a statement on Thursday that such immigration detention deaths are “unacceptable” and called for a prompt and thorough U.S. investigation to prevent a recurrence.
Officials from the Mexican Consulate in Miami visited the facility where Perez-Jimenez was held and asked authorities for documentation about the case.
Perez-Jimenez’s death sparked condemnation within the immigrant community.
“Immigration detention system deprives people of freedom, isolates people away from loved ones and subjects people to abysmal conditions,” said Carly Perez Fernandez, communications director at Detention Watch Network, a national coalition advocating against immigrant detention.
Facility had been shut down under Biden
ICE said an officer found Perez-Jimenez “unconscious and unresponsive” at 2:34 a.m. local time on Monday at Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Fla., a facility that former U.S. president Joe Biden’s administration shut down and the Trump administration reopened. Moore Haven is about 90 kilometres northeast of Fort Myers.
The officers who found Perez-Jimenez “immediately” called a medical emergency in the dormitory, and staff started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, ICE said.
Two medical personnel arrived a few minutes later and determined Perez-Jimenez to be without a pulse, before the arrival of fire rescue deputies who “initiated life-sustaining interventions.”
Perez-Jimenez was pronounced dead at 2:51 a.m., 17 minutes after he was found unconscious, ICE said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become a central tool in U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants, but as CBC’s Jonathan Montpetit explains, that’s not what the agency was originally designed to do.
The Mexican teenager was arrested on Jan. 22 by sheriff’s officers in Volusia County, a rural area located in east-central Florida, and charged with a felony for impersonation and resisting an officer, according to ICE. He was transferred to ICE custody a month later.
The AP requested the arrest report for Royer Perez-Jimenez from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, providing the full name listed in the ICE press release and the date of the arrest. The sheriff’s office responded that it searched its system, and Perez-Jimenez does not appear in it.
Florida is one of the states that aligns most with the Trump administration on immigration matters and houses some of the country’s most well-known immigrant detention centres, such as the South Florida Detention Facility, also known as Alligator Alcatraz, and Krome North Service Processing Center. Some detainees have reported finding worms in their food, non-functioning toilets and overflowing sewage.
Prolonged detention nationwide has become more common during Trump’s current term. This is partly due to a new policy that generally prohibits immigration judges from releasing detainees while their deportation cases make their way through overburdened courts.
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