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immigration
20-Year-Old Dies in ICE Detention Center Known for Abuse
Royer Perez-Jimenez had been stopped by law enforcement agents for a traffic violation in January.
Mar 19, 2026
A 20-year-old who was arrested in January after being stopped for a traffic violation in Florida is now believed to be the youngest person to have died in immigration detention under the second Trump administration, after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified Congress of the young man's death this week.
Royer Perez-Jimenez was found unresponsive by a detention officer at Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida at around 2:30 am Eastern on Monday. The center operates as an immigration detention facility under a contract with ICE.
Local emergency workers arrived and attempted lifesaving interventions, according to ICE's statement, but Perez-Jimenez was pronounced dead soon after.
The agency said Perez-Jimenez "died of a presumed suicide," but did not detail how that was determined and noted that the cause of death is still under investigation.
According to a tracker by The American Prospect, which has been monitoring deaths in ICE detention as well as deaths and injuries of people who have encountered federal immigration agents conducting enforcement operations, Perez-Jimenez is at least the 49th person who has died in detention since President Donald Trump took office for his second term in January 2025.
Perez-Jimenez was stopped on January 22 by the Edgewater Police Department for allegedly "crossing traffic lanes without using a crosswalk" while riding a scooter, according to the Miami New Times. He allegedly refused to stop and gave the officers "multiple fake names," which are both misdemeanors, according to an arrest report viewed by the New Times, but ICE's initial statement alleged that Perez-Jimenez had been charged with "felony fraud for impersonation."
ICE also said Perez-Jimenez was 19 years old and stated that the Volusia County Sheriff's Office arrested him. The sheriff's office provided jail booking information that showed Perez-Jimenez was listed as 20 years old.
The ICE report stated that Perez-Jimenez eventually told the officers that he had "overstayed his visa and is currently in the United States illegally" after coming into the country from his native Mexico.
ICE said Perez-Jimenez initially entered the US in 2022 and was granted a "voluntary return" to Mexico after he encountered US Border Patrol agents. He then reentered the US.
While alleging Perez-Jimenez had died of a presumed suicide, ICE acknowledged that he had been evaluated by medical staff during his intake, did not report any behavioral health concerns, and answered "no" to all suicide screening questions.
A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a question from News Times regarding whether Perez-Jimenez was on suicide watch.
In 2022, 17 members of Congress called for the closure of Glades County Detention Center over escalating reports of abuse. They said immigrants there were subjected to "racist abuse, often resulting in verbal abuse and violence; sexual abuse, including sexual voyeurism by guards who have watched women shower; life-endangering Covid-19 and medical neglect, including a near-fatal carbon monoxide leak last November; and regular exposure to highly dangerous levels of a toxic disinfectant chemical spray linked to severe medical harms and long-term damage to reproductive health.”
Black immigrants in particular also faced death threats, the use of pepper spray, solitary confinement, and "extreme forms of physical violence like using the restraint chair," according to the lawmakers.
ICE ended its deal with the center in 2022, only for Trump to reopen the facility for immigration detention in 2025.
Austin Kocher, a professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, warned that despite the accelerating rate of deaths in ICE detention, "Congress has not launched a single investigation."
"This is not complicated or controversial. I am simply asking Congress to take seriously the death of people in ICE’s care and custody," wrote Kocher. "ICE is an agency for which Congress is obligated to provide accountability and oversight, particularly when that agency is unable or unwilling to police itself—such as now."
Kocher urged Americans to call on US Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), who represents the district where the facility is located, to demand an investigation.
"Light up his inboxes, phone lines, and social media until he does his job and looks into the conditions at this facility," said Kocher. "If you’ve been waiting for the time to take direction action, wait no longer: Act now. Demand accountability. Do not stop until you get real answers."
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline—which offers 24/7, free, and confidential support—can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.
This piece has been updated with information provided by the Volusia County Sheriff's Department regarding Perez-Jimenez's age and the agency that arrested him.
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ICE Deporting Parents Without Allowing Them to Bring or Find Care for Children: Report
Federal immigration agents are required to allow parents to "make alternative care arrangements" for their children before they're detained.
Mar 19, 2026
The Trump administration's directive to federal immigration agents on the detention and deportation of parents of minor children is clear: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents must accommodate a parent's "efforts to make alternative care arrangements for their minor child(ren) prior to detention."
But a report released Wednesday by the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reveals that many parents, including dozens whom the groups interviewed at deportee reception centers in Honduras, have been forced to quickly leave their children in the "informal care" of friends, relatives, or even babysitters—many of whom are also vulnerable to deportation under the Trump administration—leaving them in precarious situations while traumatizing both parents and children.
According to the recently deported parents the group's researchers interviewed—many of whom reported symptoms associated with psychological trauma, such as an inability to eat or sleep, physical pain, and "acute emotional distress" with "uncontrollable crying and visible panic"—ICE agents frequently did not follow the agency's own guidelines to ask anyone they arrest whether they have children and to give parents an opportunity to take their children with them.
"They didn’t ask me anything," said one 22-year-old mother of a two-year-old. "They didn’t talk to me, only to yell at me, to humiliate. They never said: ‘You have a daughter, you can bring her,’ because I would have brought [my daughter], she is very attached to me."
Some parents told the researchers they had been ignored when they told arresting officers that they had children. One mother had three of her children with her when she was detained outside a hospital where she had gone to a medical appointment, and her three other children were at home. She was "dismissed" when she told the officers about her other children, and the family was separated.
Parents told researchers about being forced to abruptly leave their children in precarious situations—or even entirely alone.
A father who was arrested after leaving his three-year-old daughter with a babysitter said he begged the federal agents to allow him to go inside and tell the caretaker what was happening; his wife had already been detained.
"They didn’t ask me anything. They didn’t talk to me, only to yell at me, to humiliate. They never said: ‘You have a daughter, you can bring her,’ because I would have brought [my daughter], she is very attached to me."
“They just kept yelling at me to get on the ground,” he told the researchers. “I tried to get away but they threw me to the ground and wouldn’t let me say anything. They beat me really badly.”
The babysitter stayed with the child for 11 days when the father didn't return home.
A mother whose husband had previously been deported was forced to leave her four children entirely alone until their grandmother could get to them from out-of-state.
Michele Heisler, a physician with PHR, told The Guardian Thursday that ICE's refusal to follow its own directives on detaining parents "is going to create a really high burden of mental health distress."
“For a toddler, they are left with a sense of abandonment that’s kind of imprinted,” she said. “It’s hard for all of us to understand why there is this gratuitous level of cruelty happening."
DHS has repeatedly claimed that it does not separate children from their parents despite numerous reports showing otherwise.
The Trump administration weakened its protections for families in its "Detained Parents Directive" last year, eliminating a guideline that stipulated ICE agents must take into consideration whether or not an individual is a parent or legal guardian when deciding whether to detain or deport them at all.
But agents are still required to allow parents to bring their children if they are deported, and to decide what happens to their children when they are detained or removed from the country.
WRC and PHR called on Congress to codify parental interest protections, including a right to reunification with their children before and after deportation. They also urged Congress to require ICE to coordinate with state child welfare agencies to facilitate reunification and to require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to appoint a national coordinator on child welfare.
DHS appropriations bills must prevent "ICE, CBP, and other immigration agencies from using any appropriated funds for enforcement that violates laws or DHS policy pertaining to family separation, specifically the Detained Parents Directive."
Democrats in the Senate have vowed to block funding for ICE and other DHS agencies until the Trump administration agrees to immigration enforcement reforms, with the demands mainly relating to federal agents wearing masks during enforcement operations and entering private property without judicial warrants.
The report released Wednesday warned that the "scope and scale of these types of family separations is likely to worsen" as the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—the law that provided $170 billion for immigration enforcement—are "fully realized" in the coming months.
WRC and PHR said they "aim to prevent further family separations and reunify separated families by documenting systemic violations of existing family unity policies, identifying reforms to protect children and parents, and working with receiving countries like Honduras to establish systems to ensure prompt reunification of separated families."
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3,000+ No Kings Protests to 'Reject Corruption, Senseless War, and Division' on March 28
"With every ICE raid, every escalation abroad, and every abuse of power at home, Americans are rising up in opposition to Trump’s attempt to rule through fear and force."
Mar 18, 2026
As President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to wage war on Iran, threaten Cuba, and push his mass deportation agenda across the United States, people nationwide were preparing for the next round of No Kings protests on Saturday, March 28.
"Just months ago, millions of people took to the streets across thousands of events to say no to Trump's abuses of power, and today that movement is only growing," noted Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the organizing groups, in a statement.
There were more than 2,100 demonstrations during the coalition's first day of action last June. Then, over 2,700 events were held last October. As of Wednesday, just 10 days away from the upcoming mobilization, more than 3,000 events are planned.
"This unprecedented mobilization is the American people saying NO to President Trump's violent, inhumane treatment of our immigrant neighbors, attacks on our freedom of speech and voting rights, and the weaponization of the federal government."
The rallies will follow Trump's deployment of agents with Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Minnesota's Twin Cities—where CBP and ICE fatally shot two Minnesotans and violated the rights of many more. Local protests and national outrage led to a drawdown, but critics fear similar invasions of other US cities.
"With every ICE raid, every escalation abroad, and every abuse of power at home, Americans are rising up in opposition to Trump's attempt to rule through fear and force. Each day Trump crosses a new red line, and more people are deciding they've had enough," said Levin. "That is why people across the country are organizing, showing up for their neighbors, and making one thing unmistakably clear: We are done with the corruption, the cruelty, and the authoritarianism."
Naveed Shah, political director of Common Defense, highlighted that while "we've watched citizens killed in the streets by militarized forces" in recent months, the Trump administration has also "dragged us deeper into war: sending brave American service members into harm's way and leaving their families to carry the weight of that loss."
In addition to partnering with Israel to launch a war of choice in Iran, Trump this year has sent US forces to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, deployed troops to Ecuador for a joint campaign against "narco-terrorists," continued to bomb boats allegedly trafficking drugs in international waters, and engaged in "economic warfare" against Cuba while repeatedly threatening to take over the island.
"On March 28, we will come together to show that our communities reject corruption, senseless war, and division," declared MoveOn Civic Action executive director Katie Bethell.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson similarly said that "millions of us will come together to reject the attacks on LGBTQ+ people, the deadly occupation of our cities, and the assaults on our freedoms and demand a nation that lives up to its promise."
Other advocacy and labor groups in the No Kings coalition include the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), 50501, League of Conservation Voters, National Education Association, National Nurses United, Public Citizen, Service Employees International Union, and United We Dream.
Join us March 28th nationwide for #NoKings!! ❌👑HOST a protest: bit.ly/nokingshostFIND a protest: bit.ly/nokings328Download the NO KINGS stencil: bit.ly/328stencil
[image or embed]
— Alt National Park Service (@altnps.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 1:47 PM
"This unprecedented mobilization is the American people saying NO to President Trump's violent, inhumane treatment of our immigrant neighbors, attacks on our freedom of speech and voting rights, and the weaponization of the federal government," said Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU's chief political and advocacy officer.
At Trump's direction, Senate Republicans are trying to send the so-called SAVE America Act, a voter suppression bill already approved by the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, to the president's desk. Opponents warn that the legislation would disenfranchise eligible voters who lack access to proof-of-citizenship documents.
"Trump has promoted violence, hatred, lawlessness, and chaos across the country, proving time and time again that he is not a leader," argued Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert. "As we approach our country's 250th birthday, we urge all fellow Americans to join the No Kings movement as a show of patriotism and a vision of the country we deserve."
Next week's protests are scheduled just over seven months before the November midterm elections, which will determine whether Trump's Republican Party keeps control of Congress. The GOP has used its slim majorities in both chambers to impose a 2025 budget package—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—to pass new tax giveaways to the ultrawealthy while cutting key federal food and healthcare benefits for working-class Americans.
As billionaires enjoy some benefits of GOP policies, working people across the country are struggling with the cost of gasoline, groceries, healthcare, housing, and more. Trump's contested tariffs and war on Iran are exacerbating the affordability crisis.
"America is at an inflection point. Our communities are hurting. People are afraid, and they can't afford basic necessities. It's time the administration listened and helped them build a better life rather than stoking hate and fear," said AFT president Randi Weingarten. "That's why record numbers of us will again take to the streets on March 28 to protect our neighbors, schools, and hospitals from the illegal actions of a wannabe king."
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