Venezuelan man dies in ICE custody; family says he was denied medication

ATLANTA (MNTV) — A Venezuelan man, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, died while being transferred between ICE detention centers in Georgia, renewing concerns about medical care and oversight in immigration detention.

Arenas-Silva was found unresponsive on an ICE transport bus while being moved from the Irwin County Detention Center to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, and was pronounced dead at a hospital. ICE listed suspected cardiac arrest, with the official cause pending.

His family and immigrant rights groups dispute the circumstances, saying he was denied medication for a preexisting condition after his July 9 arrest. Relatives said they asked officers to let him bring his medications and that he was permitted only one prescription, and that he later reported from detention he was not getting the treatment he needed. His sister said she believes he did not receive adequate care and that his death may have been preventable.

ICE said Arenas-Silva entered the United States in 2021, was ordered removed by an immigration judge in April 2026, and was detained in a targeted operation, and that it notified internal oversight offices after his death.

The Department of Homeland Security rejects claims of a surge in custodial deaths, saying ICE provides care that meets required standards.

Those standards are exactly what is in question.

A man reportedly cut off from medication he asked for, dead on a bus between two detention centers, is not evidence of a system meeting its obligations — and internal notification is not the independent investigation that human rights groups, citing rising deaths and thin transparency across an expanding detention system, continue to demand.

His family is still seeking answers about the days between his arrest and his death.