Family Buries Mexican Teen Who Died in Florida ICE Custody

Up in the highlands of San Juan Chamula, a small town in the mountainous jungles of Chiapas in southern Mexico, a mother wept over her son’s casket.

On April 4, weeks after 19-year-old Royer Perez-Jimenez died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in Florida, dozens of people gathered in the teenager’s hometown to bury him. Footage and photos from the ceremony show mourners paying their respects to Perez in the town inhabited by the Indigenous Tzotzil Maya people, honoring his life with traditional music and ancestral rituals.

In one photo, several men wearing button-down shirts carry a wooden coffin with gold adornments through a cemetery in the town. Other images show a man dressed in a traditional fuzzy black wool tunic holding a black wooden cross that reads: “JOVEN. ROYER PEREZ JIMENEZ. FALLECIO EL DIA 16 MARZO DEL AÑO 2026 (Young Man. Royer Perez Jimenez. Died March 16, 2026)” as well as a woman comforting Perez’s mother as she cries over his casket.

In a broadcast of the burial by Mexican TV station N+, a woman can be heard weeping throughout the ceremony.

“We feel very sad,” his uncle told Noticias Telemundo in Spanish. “He went to work to achieve his dream, to build his house, to get ahead with his family because of the poverty that exists here in Mexico.”

Early on March 16, the teenager was found dead at the Glades County Detention Center, a jail on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee that houses immigrant detainees and has long faced allegations of abuse. ICE says Perez “died of a presumed suicide,” although his official cause of death remains under investigation. His family has repeatedly questioned that account, saying they do not believe he took his own life.

“What we want is a thorough investigation because, unfortunately, we do not believe suicide was the cause of his death, rather we suspect it was probably a homicide,” Perez’s father, Manuel Perez Ruiz, told Agence France-Presse. An ICE spokesperson did not respond to New Times‘ request for comment about Perez Ruiz’s statements questioning ICE’s account of his son’s death.

Perez appears to be the youngest person to die in ICE custody since President Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, according to records from the agency. According to the New York Times, at least 46 people have died in ICE custody since January 2025.

Perez’s father, Manuel Perez Ruiz, previously sought financial help to bring his son’s body home. In a video filmed shortly after Perez’s death, he said the family was struggling to bring Perez’s body back to their hometown.

“The hardest part now is bringing my son’s body here,” he said in the video. “It’s not cheap, but I want him to arrive here in our town. I’m from Rancho Nuevo. If you can support me now, please help with whatever little you can, and let it come from your hearts as financial support.”

With help from relatives, community fundraising, and “authorities,” the family was ultimately able to raise enough money to repatriate his body, according to N+.

The oldest of five siblings, Perez left Mexico for the United States at age 15, hoping to work and make money, his father previously told Noticias Telemundo. He was hired at a Mexican restaurant near Daytona Beach in Florida.

When Perez first entered the U.S. in February 2022 at age 15, he encountered U.S. Border Patrol and was “granted a voluntary return” to Mexico the same day, according to ICE. He later “illegally reentered” the U.S., although it’s unclear when, exactly.

On January 22, Perez was arrested by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and charged with impersonation and resisting an officer, both misdemeanors, according to an arrest report obtained by New Times (although ICE’s statement characterized the impersonation charge as a felony).

Police say they tried to pull Perez over while he was riding a scooter because he was crossing traffic lanes without using a crosswalk, but he allegedly refused to stop and gave officers multiple false names. According to the report, Perez eventually told police he had “overstayed his visa and is currently in the United States illegally,” and said he had no documentation to prove his name or date of birth.

Body-camera footage obtained by New Times shows the encounter quickly escalating, with officers tackling Perez to the ground.

The same day Perez was arrested, ICE placed an immigration detainer on him, the agency says, and he was transferred into ICE custody on February 21 before being moved to Glades County Detention Center on February 26.

Perez’s death drew international attention and scrutiny, including from Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who called for a “full investigation” into the circumstances.

“This can’t be happening,” Sheinbaum told reporters, referring to the death of Perez and two other Mexican immigrants who died in ICE detention earlier this year.

In a statement released several days after Perez’s death, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country will take “necessary diplomatic steps to urge the U.S. federal government to address the conditions that facilitate such incidents,” and that “all available legal avenues will be pursued to ensure the family receives full support.”

It also noted that the Mexican Consulate General in Miami visited Glades County Detention Center following Perez’s death and was “working to provide support and assistance” to Perez’s family.

“The Mexican government reiterates that such deaths are unacceptable and again demands a prompt and thorough investigation to establish the circumstances surrounding this death, determine accountability, and put in place effective guarantees of non-recurrence,” the statement reads.