A 29-Year-Old With Acute Leukemia Died Days After ICE Released Him. His Family Says He Waited Weeks for Care.

Prisciliano Trejo Ricano was 29 years old, had lived in the United States since he was 3, had graduated from high school in North Carolina and worked as a welder. He died on July 22, six days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement released him from custody and nine days after doctors told his family he had acute leukemia.

The timeline his family and advocacy groups have assembled runs like this. Trejo Ricano was arrested in Durham, North Carolina, on June 19 on charges of driving while impaired, hit-and-run and driving without a license. He was transferred to ICE custody on June 25 and admitted to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia — a facility operated for the government by the private prison company CoreCivic — on June 27.

Around July 6 and 7 he began telling relatives he was coughing up blood, that his throat hurt and that a bruise on his body would not heal. He was seen at the facility's medical unit on July 10, where he was given cough medicine and tested negative for strep throat, according to accounts from his family and the Detention Watch Network. On July 13 he received an antibiotic and intravenous fluids, and his father says that is the day the family learned he had acute leukemia. The Department of Homeland Security says he was admitted to an emergency room on July 14. He was released from ICE custody on July 16. He died six days later. A vigil was held in Charlotte on July 24.

"My family is shattered," his father, Prisciliano Trejo Ricano Sr., said. "The people who are inside don't care, they see them as animals."

DHS disputes the account of neglect. "Claims that he did not receive medical care while in custody are FALSE," the department said. Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs at CoreCivic, said the company was "deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care."

Advocacy organizations have demanded an independent review of the eight-day gap between his first reported symptoms and the diagnosis. "ICE kills people and threatens community safety across the country," said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at the Detention Watch Network. Attorneys at Project South and the immigrant support organization El Refugio, both of which work directly with detainees at Stewart, have raised similar questions about the facility's medical screening.

The death lands amid a sharp expansion of the detention system. At least 55 people have died in ICE custody since the start of the second Trump administration, including 22 this year. The 33 deaths recorded in 2025 were the most since 2003. As of July 11, ICE was holding 65,765 people, and the agency made more than 43,000 arrests in June alone.