19 Oct Man Dies in ICE Detention at Laredo Processing Center

A Mexican national, 56, died Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo, according to The Texas Tribune. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and the man’s daughter confirmed the death to the outlet.

Cuellar said a check of the cells around 10 a.m. turned up Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias unresponsive. Staff began CPR and called for emergency help.

The GEO Group, which runs the facility, pointed the Tribune to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Tribune’s Sunday and Monday requests for comment. A cause of death has not been released, and the Webb County Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy.

Cuellar toured the facility Sunday, per the Laredo Morning Times. He said officials would not discuss the case, citing the ongoing investigation, but they walked him through how detainees are screened and treated. Newcomers get a medical screening in their first 12 hours, he said. On-site care includes a doctor, a nurse, dental care and exam rooms, with telemedicine and outside referrals when needed. He viewed the area where Andrade-Covarrubias was held, which is watched by cameras around the clock.

He plans to send written questions Monday, including what happened in the three days before the death and whether Andrade-Covarrubias asked for medical care. Cuellar added that facility officials described Andrade-Covarrubias as a Mexico resident, while Mexican Consulate officials told him he held legal residency.

His daughter, Estefani Andrade, 29, a U.S. citizen, told the Tribune that no federal agency has contacted the family. She said they learned of his death Saturday through the medical examiner’s office, and they planned to go to the facility Monday to pick up his belongings.

She said her father had spent decades in Dallas, painted apartments and townhomes as a contractor, and has three grown children, all U.S.-born. He hoped to move back to Mexico eventually and had been traveling there to build a home. He was detained at the border in June while returning from Mexico by bus.

Andrade said her father had heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure and brought his medication with him, but she said the center refused to give it to him. She said he looked thinner on video calls, was coughing and told her he felt unwell. He also told her he asked medical staff for help, including when he had trouble breathing and chest tightness, and felt they ignored him.

By the Tribune’s count, Andrade-Covarrubias is the seventh ICE detainee to die in Texas this year. The earliest was Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death the El Paso medical examiner ruled a homicide in January. His is also the second ICE detention death in Laredo this year, after 63-year-old Felix Alcorta-Rodriguez, a Mexican national at the Webb County Detention Center, who died June 19 after staff found him unresponsive.