More than 2½ months after an asylum-seeker from Nicaragua died in immigration custody, his family say they have more questions than answers about the circumstances surrounding his death. He had filed grievances alleging physical mistreatment by the facility’s staff and had also repeatedly complained to his family.
Ernesto Rocha-Cuadra, 42, died June 23 after having spent over a year in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, as he waited for his immigration case to be reviewed.
An ICE panel had recommended him for release in November, but officials at the detention center declined to release him, according to attorneys and immigrant advocacy groups, NBC News reported in June. …
… Rocha-Cuadra’s family, who have been living in the Los Angeles area for over 30 years, said it took three days for them to find out he had died.
According to the family’s account, the day after Rocha-Cuadra died, one of his brothers, Frank Rocha-Cuadra, received a call from a detainee who was worried that Ernesto had not returned to detention and wanted to know whether the family knew how he was doing. Not aware that anything had happened, the family began calling the detention center but kept getting a recorded message until they got through on June 26, a Monday.
“I got transferred to someone and when I gave him my brother’s information, he said: ‘Let me pray for the family. I’m so sorry,'” said Frank. “So right then and there he told me that my brother had passed away.”
It wasn’t until 4 p.m. that day that ICE called his mother notifying them of Ernesto’s death, Frank Rocha-Cuadra said. …