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Immigrants’ rights advocates are calling for a Georgia immigration detention facility to be shut down after a 29-year-old man died of leukemia. Advocates say Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to provide medical attention while he was detained at the facility.
Preicilano Trejo died on July 24 of acute leukemia, according to a GoFundMe from his family. He died at the hospital, nine days after being admitted. Advocates say he should’ve been at the hospital sooner.
Claims that ICE delayed medical attention
According to a statement from the Detention Watch Network, Trejo was detained in North Carolina on June 19. While in custody, his family said he experienced high levels of stress, depression and physical illness.
He regularly informed his family that he was feeling unwell, coughing up blood, in pain and had a bruise that would not heal, according to the GoFundMe.
On July 6, he asked for medical care. Detention Watch Network,a U.S. national membership coalition dedicated to abolishing immigration detention, said ICE did not provide it for eight days.
The group said Trejo was taken to the hospital on July 13. By July 15, he was in a coma. The following day, according to the GoFundMe, his family learned told Trejo was in the intensive care unit. His custody was transferred from ICE to his family.
They learned of his diagnosis and established the GoFundMe to raise money for treatment and care. Since his death, the plan to continue raising money for his funeral.
Advocates call for facility’s closure
And advocates are pushing for answers.
According to Detention Watch Network, 15 other detainees at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center, where Trejo was detained, have also died.
“The Stewart Detention Center has a long record of abuse and death,” the network said in its press release. “People detained at the Stewart Detention Center and immigrants’ rights advocates have been exposing inhumane conditions there for over a decade.”
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It lists abuses within the facility, which is operated by the private prison corporation CoreCivic, claiming inept mental health care, use of solitary confinement, unsanitary conditions, COVID-19 negligence, medical neglect, forced labor and use of force against people detained.
“Stewart Detention Center has a reputation as one of the deadliest detention centers in the country,” said Amilcar Valencia, executive director at El Refugio. “Action is needed now; we can’t allow more people to be put at risk. We demand justice, a full independent investigation of all deaths at this facility, and a commitment from Congress to terminate CoreCivic’s contract and shut down Stewart.”
In response to an inquiry about Trejo’s death and the alleged delayed medical treatment, the Department of Homeland Security provided the following statement:
“On June 25, 2026, ICE arrested Prisciliano Ricano Trejo, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, charged with DUI and hit and run. He illegally entered the U.S. at an unknown time and place. He was released from ICE custody on July 16, 2026 with an order of recognizance. When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them.”
ICE did not respond to Straight Arrow’s request for comment.
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