A man in ICE custody found dead Saturday in his bed at a for-profit immigration detention center in Laredo, Texas, was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement about the death.
Customs and Border Protection arrested 56-year-old Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias at a border crossing in June after suspecting he obtained legal status in the U.S. “through fraudulent means” by failing to disclose an arrest for theft in 2004, the DHS statement said.
The man’s daughter disputes that, telling The Texas Tribune that the arrest was known to immigration authorities who approved her father's request for a green card. He lived in the Dallas area for decades where he worked as a house painter, she said.
DHS did not offer any evidence of Andrade-Covarrubias ever being convicted of a crime, despite calling him a “criminal alien” in the news release about his death.
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ICE held Andrade-Covarrubias at the Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo, Texas, where he remained until security staff found him unresponsive on Saturday. A cause of death has not been identified yet, DHS said. His family claims he could not get the medical attention he needed for pre-existing conditions including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, has requested ICE quickly respond to a list of questions about the latest ICE detainee to die in the agency’s care.
"Was he asking for help? Was he asking for medicine?” Cuellar said in an interview with Scripps News. “I want to see the specifics, starting off with, was he a legal resident? Because if he was a legal resident he should have never been in there.”
Andrade-Covarrubias is the 60th ICE detainee to die since the start of President Trump's second term, according to a count by Relevant Research, a group that collects and tracks detainee deaths. Eighteen of those deaths were people born in Mexico.
The Mexican government is requesting the U.S. provide a full investigation into what led to Andrade-Covarrubias' sudden death.
"We are also going to file a complaint in the United States because there must be protection of human rights," Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters Monday.
The for-profit GEO Group corporation owns the detention center and houses detainees under government contract. The company deferred questions to ICE.
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DHS, which responds to questions for ICE, says the Andrade-Covarrubias received proper medical care. Similar claims by DHS about detainees receiving adequate medical care before their deaths have later been contracted by ICE’s own comprehensive mortality reviews.
A January 2025 compliance inspection report by ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight faulted the Rio Grande Processing Center for not always conducting health assessments for new immigrant detainees within two weeks as required by national detention standards.
The report listed the facility’s rating as “good.”
