Indian migrant dies in Georgia ICE detention

ATLANTA — A Georgia immigrant detainee has died while in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Jaspal Singh, an Indian national, had spent over nine months in detention at the Folkston ICE Processing Center near the Florida border before dying on April 15, at 57.

The cause of Singh’s death is unknown, with the results of an autopsy still pending, federal authorities said. Singh passed away at the Southeast Georgia Health System’s Camden Campus in St. Mary’s, Georgia.

“ICE remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” the agency said in a statement. “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”

Singh entered the U.S. legally in 1992, but was ordered deported by an immigration judge roughly six years later. In June 2023, border officials arrested Singh after he’d reentered the country illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol then transferred custody of Singh to the Atlanta ICE field office, and he was detained in Folkston.

Singh’s death makes him the third foreign national to have passed away while in immigration detention this year. Including Singh, eleven Georgia ICE detainees died in custody since 2017, according to government data.

The last time an Indian ICE detainee died in Georgia came in 2017, when Atulkumar Babubhai Patel, 58, was apprehended at Hartsfield-Jackson because he did not possess the necessary immigration documents. He was detained by immigration officials at the Atlanta City Detention Center, and shortly thereafter began exhibiting symptoms of heart failure.

In that case, a review conducted by ICE found that the medical care and health services received by Patel while in custody “were delivered outside the safe limits of practice, which either directly or indirectly contributed to his death.”

Record levels of Indian migrants are attempting to illegally cross into the U.S. on foot.

During the 2023 fiscal year, border agents encountered nearly 97,000 Indian nationals trying to enter the country between official ports of entry. Just three years’ prior, that number was under 20,000.

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