An elderly Cuban man who was in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement died early this week at a hospital in Miami.
According to ICE, he had been receiving medical treatment at Larkin Community Hospital for several days before passing away at 9:30 a.m. Monday. The preliminary cause of death was ruled to be cardiac arrest.
ICE said it was withholding the name and identity of the 63-year-old-man's name "pending notification of next of kin."
ICE also said the man had initially been paroled into the U.S. in May of 1980 in Key West as a Cuban national arriving in the U.S. (People who are "paroled" into the U.S. are granted physical entry for specific, case-by-case reasons, but it does not mean they have been admitted to the country permanently.)
The man had a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1984, when he was sentenced to ten years in prison for felony heroin charges and aggravated assault with a weapon in New Jersey, according to ICE.
He had entered ICE custody on January 14, 2020, following his release from local criminal custody, according to the organization, and arrived at the hospital on January 23.
"At the time of his death, the individual was pending removal to Cuba in accordance with a final order of removal issued by a federal immigration judge in July 2000," ICE said in a statement.
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"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."
