Cuban immigrant dies in ICE’s Stewart Detention Center
A Cuban man detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement died by apparent suicide while being held at a South Georgia immigrant jail, the agency confirmed Friday.
Denny Adan Gonzalez, 33, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Stewart Detention Center on the night of April 28, ICE said. The agency reported that emergency personnel at the facility responded immediately, “using a cutdown tool and beginning CPR.” Paramedics from neighboring Webster County continued resuscitation efforts, but Gonzalez was pronounced dead at 11:11 p.m., ICE officials said.
Gonzalez is the second detainee to have died at Stewart under President Donald Trump’s second administration, following the death by suicide of a Mexican national last June. A third ICE detainee died while being transferred to the South Georgia facility.
There have now been 18 deaths in ICE custody nationwide in 2026.
Since the start of the federal government’s fiscal year in October 2025, a total of 30 people have lost their lives in ICE detention, making this the deadliest year on record.
“As tragedies mount at Stewart, we renew our call for this deadly prison to be shut down. Instead of taking steps to dismantle this prison, ICE is doubling down. Congress must take decisive action and shut down Stewart once and for all,” Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director for the social justice organization Project South, said in a statement.
According to ICE, Gonzalez entered the country illegally through the southern border in May 2019. Because Gonzalez passed an early screening to determine asylum eligibility, authorities allowed him to remain in the country, but an immigration judge ultimately ordered him removed to Cuba in December 2019.
He was deported the following month, ICE’s report says, but later reentered the U.S. unlawfully in April 2022. He was processed by Border Patrol and released under an order of supervision. He had been reporting to ICE in Charlotte until September 2025.
Last December, Gonzalez was arrested in Charlotte “for assault on a female and domestic violence,” ICE’s report states. Immigration authorities picked up Gonzalez from a local jail in North Carolina and transferred him to Stewart in January, “where he was receiving full due process,” ICE said.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments,” ICE’s report reads.
The surge of deaths in ICE custody is occurring amid an explosive growth in the immigrant detainee population.
As of early April, there were over 60,300 immigrants in ICE custody — a 50% increase since the end of the Biden administration. Georgia is the state with the fifth biggest ICE detainee population (roughly 4,400), and Stewart represents the third busiest ICE facility nationwide (with just over 2,000 detainees).
About the Author
