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Cuban Man Held at Miami's Krome Detention Center Dies in ICE Custody

Isidro Pérez's death marks the third fatality tied to the immigration detention center since January.
Image: A woman wearing a POLICE "ERO" jacket overlooking three men sitting in chairs blurred in the background.
Isidro Pérez, a 75-year-old Cuban man, has died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at Miami's Krome Detention Center. Photo by usicegov/Flickr
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A Cuban man has died while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, marking the third death at the troubled facility since the start of the year. He was being held at Miami's Krome Detention Center.

Isidro Pérez, a 75-year-old Cuban national, died at a local hospital on June 26, according to an ICE press release. His cause of death remains under investigation.

In 1966, Pérez was paroled into the United States 1966 through the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cuban natives who meet specific eligibility requirements to apply to become lawful permanent residents. According to the Miami Herald, he arrived in the U.S. at the age of 16 and began work as a mechanic and fisherman.

In the 1980s, he was convicted of marijuana possession in South Florida and served 18 months in prison. After his release, his family says he turned his life around, dedicating himself to rescuing stray cats and dogs.

"We’re all humans you know, we make mistakes, but we remake ourselves," Pérez' stepdaughter, Alba Patricia Gomez, told reporters. "And that's exactly what he did."

But on June 5, just days after the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request to revoke humanitarian parole for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, immigration officers arrested Pérez at a community center in Key Largo and charged with being "inadmissible" under U.S. immigration law (meaning he wasn't legally allowed to enter or remain in the country). At the time, he was living on a houseboat off the coast of Key Largo with his dogs, according to the Herald.

He was transferred to Krome the following day and diagnosed with several medical issues upon intake.

On June 17, Pérez was hospitalized with chest pain. He was discharged on June 25 but reported chest pains again the following day. While Miami-Dade Rescue workers arrived at Krome and began life-saving measures, including defibrillation and CPR, he was taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, where he was pronounced dead that evening.

Pérez is at least the eleventh person to die in ICE custody since the beginning of the year.

As ICE continues to ramp up its immigration enforcement under pressure from President Donald Trump, immigration detention centers across the country — including Krome — have found themselves plagued by reports of overcrowding and poor conditions.

To keep up with the surge in detainees, Miami's downtown federal prison has even begun quietly doubling as an immigration detention center, housing hundreds of detainees in a facility designed for criminal defendants awaiting trial.

In January, a 29-year-old Honduran man, Genry Ruiz-Guillen, died of "complications of schizoaffective disorder" while being held at Krome. In February, 44-year-old Ukrainian Maksym Chernyak died while being held at the immigration detention center. His wife told NBC 6 that she believes her husband was not adequately cared for at the facility when he fell ill.

In April, 44-year-old Marie Ange Blaise of Haiti died at the Broward Transitional Center, another ICE facility in Pompano Beach.

Most recently, on June 23, 49-year-old Canadian Johnny Noviello died at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami after spending six weeks in immigration detention. While his cause of death remains unclear, Canadian consular officials have said they're "urgently seeking more information" about his death.