Guatemalan woman who sought asylum dies in ICE custody at Fort Worth hospital
A 22-year-old Guatemalan woman in ICE custody died at a Fort Worth hospital Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday.
Maria Celeste Ochoa Yoc de Ramirez died at Texas Health Downtown Fort Worth following a surgery in February, according to a news release from ICE.
Her cause of death was autoimmune hepatitis, complicated by septic shock and acute liver failure, according to ICE.
Ramirez is the eighth person to die in ICE custody since October, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Eight people died in ICE custody in the entire 2019 fiscal year, which was October 2018 to October 2019.
Ramirez crossed the border near Hidalgo in September, where she was arrested and taken to a detention facility.
In October, ICE officials granted Ramirez asylum based on credible fear, meaning she had reason to fear returning to her country due to persecution, torture or another reason. She was placed in ICE custody while legal proceedings began for humanitarian protection.
On Feb. 9, Ramirez underwent surgery for a medical procedure and was discharged the next day to an ICE detention facility. According to BuzzFeed News, Ramirez had her gallbladder surgically removed and was sent to a facility in Oklahoma.
On Feb. 13, Enforcement and Removal Operations officials moved her to a detention center in Alvarado. On Feb. 18, she went to a hospital for additional treatment. Ten days later, she was transferred to Texas Health Downtown Fort Worth.
She remained at the Fort Worth hospital until she died Sunday.
“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, as it does in all such cases,” the agency said.
Donations were being raised by the Guatemalan community to pay for Ramirez’s body to be sent home, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Fatalities in ICE custody are statically “exceedingly rare,” the news release said. ICE has been heavily scrutinized for its medical care in detention facilities, especially after a man killed himself after being held in ICE custody for 148 days in October.
In December, the House Oversight and Reform Committee opened an investigation into the medical care of immigrant detainees after investigations by CNN and BuzzFeed.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 3:44 PM.
