Migrant in ICE custody dies at Maryland jail

A man who was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) died over the weekend at a jail in Maryland. 

ICE said in a statement that the cause of Anthony Oluseye Akinyemi’s death appeared to be “self-inflicted strangulation” but that the case was being investigated. 

Akinyemi, 56, entered the agency’s custody a day prior to his death after he was convicted of a sex offense and assault in Baltimore City Circuit Court, ICE said. The Nigerian national died at the Worcester County Jail in Snow Hill, Md. 

“ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of this incident,” the agency said in a statement. 

ICE announced Akinyemi’s death on Monday.

That same day, a House panel opened an investigation into medical care for immigration detainees following what it described as “a pattern of negligence and abuse leading to serious harm and the deaths of immigrants detained by the Trump Administration.”