An asylum-seeker who died in ICE custody draws attention to detention center medical care

A man who died earlier this year in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody had been sick for months, his condition seeming to worsen as he was held at a troubled detention center in Louisiana, advocates say and ICE records show.

Ousmane Ba, a 33-year-old man from Senegal, died Feb. 23 after being hospitalized for nearly a month, according to a statement from ICE. He had been detained at the Winn Correctional Center, in rural Winnfield, since early September, after entering the United States in late August, ICE said in a Feb. 26 statement.

The Winn facility has for years been the subject of complaints about inadequate medical care, filthy accommodations and mistreatment of detainees.

Immigrant rights advocates held a small candlelight vigil outside ICE’s New Orleans field office Friday for Ba and others who have died in ICE custody and called for the federal government to end its contract with the troubled facility where, they say, other seriously ill people remain in custody.

“There will be another death. It’s only a matter of time,” Sarah Jones, the co-chair of the organizing committee of the Southeast Dignity Not Detention Coalition said as she stood near a banner that read “ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD” in Spanish and an altar surrounded by candles and photos of people who have died in ICE custody.

The coalition is calling for the federal government to not renew Winn’s contract this month and to release the 1,455 detainees held there, according to ICE’s most recent data from April 15.

“No one should be at that detention center any longer,” Jones said.

ICE said Friday that it continues to need the Winn facility and intends to extend its current contract.

"The use of private detention contractors is a vital piece of the national detention system enabling ICE to successfully execute its mission," an ICE spokesperson said in a statement. "The ability for the agency to remove individuals to their home countries, hold those in custody who require detention and are a public safety threat is directly dependent on location and availability of detention space."

But advocates argue that ICE facilities like Winn are not safe.

“The thing that’s really just upsetting and heartbreaking is we were really just finished protesting another death last summer. It hasn’t even been a year and someone else died,” said Mich González, the associate executive director for Freedom for Immigrants, referring to the death of Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra, a 42-year-old Nicaraguan migrant who died June 23 while in ICE custody at a facility in Jena, Louisiana. His preliminary cause of death was cardiac arrest, ICE said.

“We’ve been raising the alarm about this entire field office for years. We basically said it was only a matter of time,” he said.

Ba began experiencing health issues in November, about two weeks after he was transferred to Winn, according to ICE’s detainee death report. His symptoms, which included vomiting and bleeding from the nose and mouth, persisted for months. Ibrahim Diongue, a family friend in St. Louis who wanted to sponsor Ba if he was released, said he desperately needed outside medical attention.

Ba frequently complained about being sick when they talked on the telephone, Diongue told NBC News.

“I could hear it in his breath and his voice that he was not doing better,” he said.

“I think if he was not in ICE custody, he would be walking around now, no matter what country, and not going in the ground,” Diongue said.

Before he was admitted to the hospital where he died, Ba was treated by medical staff at Winn and nearby medical facilities more than a dozen times during his time at the detention facility, including a hospitalization in November, according to ICE’s detainee death report.

During his time in custody, ICE officials noted Ba’s symptoms, including coughing up “large amounts of bright red blood with clots,” nausea and vomiting and feeling like food was getting stuck in his chest, according to the report. Shortly before he was transferred to CHRISTUS St. Francis Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria, Ba was “bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth” with abnormal blood pressure and oxygen levels, the report said.

A spokeswoman for CHRISTUS Health, which runs the hospital where Ba was treated and died, said privacy laws prevented her from providing any information about his case and his autopsy report, and referred questions to the coroner’s office. The Rapides Parish Coroner’s Office previously told NBC News that it does not “know who does the hospital autopsies” and did not immediately respond to a follow-up request for comment.

The Winn facility has been the subject of reports of abuse, lack of proper medical treatment and filthy conditions in recent years.

Following multiple complaints of inhumane conditions at the facility and a formal investigation into the matter in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties wrote in a memorandum to the acting director of ICE at the time that it had “serious concerns for the health and safety of the detainees” and recommended the “facility be closed or drawn down until several critical health and safety concerns could be addressed.” Winn housed 602 people in September of that year, according to ICE.

ICE announced in March 2022 that it was limiting use of three facilities, including Winn, but since then Winn’s population has only grown.

An ICE inspection report in January graded the conditions at Winn as “acceptable/adequate,” finding more deficiencies than in fiscal year 2023, when it received a rating of “good,” according to the report.

Adequate is one step above “failure” on the scale, with the highest grade being “superior.”

The ICE Office of Detention Oversight noted 32 deficiencies at the Winn facility in the report. The office said that the facility’s overall compliance had “trended downward” since its inspection the previous year. The inspection report noted problems with the heating and cooling system and “roof damage, which resulted in significant condensation forming on the housing units’ walls, ceilings and floors.”

Three House Democrats on Friday requested the Government Accountability Office conduct a review of emergency medical procedures and major surgeries performed on people in ICE and Customs and Border Protection custody.

“Specifically, we request that GAO review the process for detainees receiving approval for major surgery and emergency medical care, including how major medical care is authorized and approved, whether people can access surgery and emergency services when experiencing an acute medical issue, and whether people give informed consent before undergoing major medical procedures, including emergency surgeries,” Reps. Jamie Raskin, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Robert Garcia wrote in the letter to Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general.

The letter does not mention Winn, but notes that detained people “have reported incidents of poor or improper medical care while in ICE custody and difficulties obtaining authorization and referrals for appropriate medical care, especially in urgent situations.”

ICE has said that it provides medical, dental, and mental health intake screenings to people within 12 hours of their arrival at a detention facility and provides full health assessments within 14 days of their entering ICE custody. The agency has said that all detainees have access to medical appointments and no one is denied emergent care.

For detainees, Ba’s death and months of suffering cast a long shadow over the Winn detention center.

“There are other people who are literally hanging on for dear life and they know how close they are to death. We don’t want to see another death at Winn,” Jones said.

González, from Freedom for Immigrants, said that since Rocha-Cuadra’s and Ba’s deaths, advocacy groups have repeatedly contacted ICE officials to call out the medical neglect and deaths that they say have resulted from the conditions at Winn. Nearly 40 advocacy groups also wrote a letter to the secretary of DHS late last year calling on the government to not renew Winn’s contract, in part because of what they called a “deliberate deprivation of appropriate medical care.”

Among the people immigrant rights advocates are hoping to see released from Winn is Jose Lara Castellanos, 32, a migrant from Honduras. Lara Castellanos said he has been vomiting up blood, feeling dizzy and weak, and experiencing other medical issues for months.

“I’ve been detained for a year and now I have all these health problems,” Lara Castellanos said in Spanish, breaking into tears during a phone call from the detention center. He began throwing up while on the call and said he vomited blood and foam. As he apologized for not reaching the bathroom in time, a voice could be heard telling him to “clean it up.”

González and others who have been advocating for Lara Castellanos’ release and fighting his immigration case fear something worse will happen to him if he remains in custody.

Dr. Kate Sugarman, a family medicine specialist who has not treated Lara Castellanos but has reviewed his medical records at the request of advocates, said she believes his case is critical.

“I know when a patient is critical, I know when a patient has an emergency, I know warning signs. He has all the warning signs,” Sugarman said. “He is repeatedly vomiting blood, he has repeated episodes of blood and diarrhea. Anytime somebody has that, they need immediate specialty care,” she said.

In an email exchange in late March, González called on ICE to review Lara Castellanos’ “urgent request” for release from custody, “based on serious medical concerns.” González wrote in the  March 27 email that Lara Castellanos was in “urgent need of specialist care.”

“He is at grave risk of premature death if specialized care is not provided or in the alternative, if he is not released so his sponsor and family can secure him this care,” González wrote.

The ICE Office of the Senior Reviewing Official wrote back two days later, according to emails shared with NBC News by González, that it had reviewed the case and “concurs with the Field Office’s decision to continue detention.”

The agency later said Lara Castellanos would be considered for release, but would have to pay a bond of $25,000. The immigrant advocacy coalition has raised about $20,000, González said.

“The positive update is that we’re getting close to raising the full $25,000 for his release,” he said.

In a recent phone call, Lara Castellanos said he’s afraid he will die at Winn, despite having a potential sponsor waiting for him, a pastor in California.

“The pain is constant,” he said, his voice breaking down as he spoke. “My friends tell me I look so weak, I’ve gotten so skinny.”