Cuban man awaiting deportation dies in ICE custody

A 59-year-old Cuban man in the custody of immigration services died in Miami on Monday. 

Luis Ramirez-Marcano was taken to the Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami on Feb. 17 for abdominal pain, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed in a statement on Wednesday. 

Medical staff provided him with “round-the-clock care,” but Ramirez-Marcano died on Feb. 19 in the intensive care unit, according to ICE.

The official cause of his death has not been determined. 

Ramirez-Marcano had been in ICE custody since Jan. 12 awaiting his deportation back to Cuba from the Krome Detention Center. 

He is the third ICE detainee to die in fiscal year 2018, according to ICE.

“Fatalities in ICE custody, statistically, are exceedingly rare and occur at a fraction of the rate of the U.S. detained population as a whole,” the statement said. 

A review into Ramirez-Marcano’s death will be conducted and Cuban Embassy officials have been notified.