A 56-year-old Mexican man died in his cell at a federal immigration processing center in Laredo on Saturday, after staff found him unresponsive during a routine security check, performed CPR and called emergency services. His death marks the seventh time this year that someone detained by ICE in Texas has died in custody.
Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias was being held at the Laredo facility, which is run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, when staff discovered him unresponsive at around 10 a.m. Saturday, according to The Texas Tribune. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, the Democrat who represents Texas's 28th District and is based in Laredo, confirmed the death to the outlet and said it remains unknown why Andrade-Covarrubias was found unresponsive. His daughter told the Tribune that he had a heart condition, diabetes and high blood pressure, and had sought help from facility medical staff.
Andrade-Covarrubias's daughter said the family learned of his death through the Webb County Medical Examiner's office. The congressman told the Tribune he planned to visit the facility Sunday afternoon to ask what happened, inquire about conditions and medical care there, and find out whether anyone else inside was ill. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent Sunday morning, per the same report.
A Grim Tally Across Texas Facilities
Andrade-Covarrubias is the seventh person to die this year while detained by ICE somewhere in Texas, the Tribune's report notes. The first was Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died in January at the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso; the El Paso Medical Examiner's Office ruled his death a homicide by suffocation, according to Texas Public Radio.
Lunas Campos's death was part of a brutal six-week stretch spanning December and January in which six people died while detained by ICE in Texas, three of them at Camp East Montana alone, Texas Public Radio reported. More than 18,700 people were being held in Texas ICE facilities as of February, the highest number of any state in the country, the station found.
Medical Care Failures Flagged Nationwide
The Texas deaths fit into a larger national pattern. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody nationwide in 2025, surpassing the previous high of 20 set in 2005, according to Texas Public Radio's reporting. Over that same year, the population in immigration detention nationwide swelled from roughly 40,000 people in January to nearly 66,000 by December, as reported by The Intercept.
Internal ICE mortality reviews found that detention staff broke with safe standards of medical care in at least six deaths that occurred in custody in 2025, The Intercept reported. In one case, a review found staff did not provide effective CPR after detainee Johnny Noviello was found unresponsive in June 2025; in another, health staff failed to initiate CPR after Haitian detainee Marie Ange Blaise became pulseless at a Florida detention center that April, despite her pulselessness, according to the same investigation.
Other recent deaths have drawn similar scrutiny. Lianyong Wei, a 51-year-old Chinese immigrant, was found unresponsive during morning checks the day after he was taken into immigration custody at a facility in Saipan, and was pronounced dead at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 23, NPR reported. Separately, a federal lawsuit accuses ICE of maintaining dire conditions at Camp East Montana that severely violated detainees' human and constitutional rights, and it seeks court-ordered health and safety improvements, according to The Guardian.
Cuellar's planned visit to the Laredo facility Sunday will be his attempt to get direct answers about Andrade-Covarrubias's death and the conditions detainees face there. As of Sunday morning, DHS had not responded to the Tribune's request for comment on the case.
