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A Mexican teenager has died while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in South Florida, according to a statement from the agency.
Royer Perez-Jimenez, a 19-year-old from Mexico, died on March 16 at the Glades County Detention Center — a county jail on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee that has long housed immigrant detainees and been the subject of allegations of abuse. According to ICE, Perez “died of a presumed suicide,” although his official cause of death remains under investigation.
He appears to be the youngest person to die in ICE custody since President Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, according to ICE records.
According to ICE’s statement, at around 2:30 a.m. on March 16, a Glades County detention officer found Perez “unconscious and unresponsive.” Staff began CPR, and medical personnel arrived minutes later, determined he was without a pulse, and took over resuscitation efforts before requesting emergency medical services.
At around 2:40 a.m., fire rescue officials arrived and “initiated-life sustaining interventions” on Perez, according to the agency. He was pronounced dead at 2:51 a.m.
Nestor Yglesias, a spokesperson for ICE, did not respond to New Times‘ questions about Perez, including whether he was on suicide watch at the time of his death.
When Perez first entered the United States in February 2022, 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.
ICE placed an immigration detainer on him that same day, the agency says, and he was transferred into ICE custody on February 21 before being moved to Glades County Detention Center on February 26.
ICE says that Perez was evaluated by medical staff at intake and didn’t report any behavioral health issues, including answering “no” to all suicide screening questions.
Glades County Detention Center has long faced allegations of abuse. In 2022, 17 members of Congress asked that it be closed, citing immigrants being “subject to racist abuse, often resulting in verbal abuse and violence; sexual abuse, including sexual voyeurism by guards who have watched women shower; life-endangering COVID-19 and medical neglect, including a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak last November; and regular exposure to highly dangerous levels of a toxic disinfectant chemical spray linked to severe medical harms and long-term damage to reproductive health.”
At least 36 people have died in ICE custody since January 2025, according to ICE.
In South Florida, the deaths have included 29-year-old Honduran Genry Ruiz-Guillen, who died of complications from schizoaffective disorder at Krome Detention Center; 44-year-old Ukrainian national Maksym Chernyak (also in ICE custody at Krome), whose wife told NBC 6 he didn’t receive adequate medical care; 44-year-old Marie Ange Blaise of Haiti at the Broward Transitional Center; 49-year-old Canadian Johnny Noviello, who died after six weeks in immigration detention in downtown Miami; Hasan Ali Moh’D Saleh, a 67-year-old Jordanian man who died of suspected cardiac arrest while in ICE custody at Miami’s Larkin Community Hospital; and Jairo Garcia-Hernandez, a 27-year-old who died in ICE custody at Larkin Community Hospital.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant.
