Indian migrant dies in ICE custody in Georgia

The death of an Indian national in ICE custody this month at the Folkston ICE Processing Center in southern Georgia has renewed calls to close the facility.

According to NRI Pulse, Jaspal Singh died of a heart attack on April 15th, citing an unnamed source. However, other accounts have not listed a cause of death.

“We are horrified by the loss of Jaspal Singh while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the GEO Group,” said Maura Finn of the Southern Poverty Law Center in a statement.

“Despite longstanding and well-documented human rights abuses, Congress continues to expand the number of beds in immigrant detention and direct millions of taxpayer dollars towards this inhumane system. Singh’s death is another reminder of the barbaric conditions that color our country’s broken immigration system.”

The Law Center called for the end of “costly and unnecessary detention of immigrants in favor of a more welcoming, sensible and humane immigration process.”

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta echoed that demand. It said the facility had a history of mistreating migrant Indians, citing a hunger strike by Sikh asylum seekers that lasted about six months in 2018.

It also referenced findings in a 2022 report from the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security that found conditions at Folkston “endangered the health, safety, and rights” of detainees.

The campaign to shut down Folkston began in 2022.

Singh died at the Southeast Georgia Health System’s Camden Campus in St. Mary’s, Georgia.

“ICE remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” the agency said in a statement. “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”