Immigrant rights advocates stood outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Atlanta, holding placards with names and photos.
Uche Onwa, an organizer with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, read the names of people who have died in Georgia’s ICE detention centers.
For years, protesters have come here every time someone dies in ICE custody in the state. Georgia has one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country and has also seen the most deaths in its custody.
Onwa’s voice echoed through a speaker, loud enough to be heard inside. Halfway through the list, he saw the name “Pedro Arriago-Santoya.”
He died four years ago this summer after complaining of stomach pains at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. The facility is operated by the private, for-profit prison company CoreCivic.
His death came a year after an investigation by WABE and Reveal found that federal officials cited a lack of medical staff and inhumane living conditions, among other issues, as problems at the detention center.
“There are so many warning signs that with the thousands of people we hold in detention centers we just pass them by every day,” said Anton Flores, founder of the nonprofit Casa Alterna, which helps newly arrived immigrants and refugees. He was one of many supporters who protested after Arriago-Santoya’s death.
“When a person like Pedro is detained by the U.S. government for possible deportation, we are already denying them access to due process,” he said. “You don’t get a public defender. We are already denying them so many basic rights.”
Arriago-Santoya was awaiting deportation to Mexico. According to ICE documents, he was charged with one misdemeanor and one probation violation and was arrested for being drunk in public.
ICE documents also show that his vital signs were within normal parameters during numerous health examinations that began with his detention in April.
But in July he was dead.
After his death in 2019, ICE said in a statement that it was committed to the health and well-being of all people in its custody. The following year, the coronavirus spread at Stewart and the facility experienced one of the highest rates of COVID infections in correctional facilities in the country.
And although ICE sent Arriago-Santoya to Mexico, the agency was unable to find a family and buried him in an unmarked grave near Hartsfield Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
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Kevin Caron stood on a grassy slope at Forest Hills Memorial Gardens south of Atlanta. The sun beat down on the unshaded corner near a noisy street.
Caron works with Georgia Detention Watch, an advocacy group that raises awareness of human rights violations in the state’s immigration detention centers.
When he and other advocates learned that Arriago-Santoya was buried in an unmarked grave, they decided to give the man a proper, dignified burial.
“Of course, as you can see, there are many storylines. His was unmarked, so we didn’t know where he was,” Caron said.
Lawyers collected donations for a gravestone. Arriago-Santoya’s marker now lists his name and date of birth and death. It is also engraved with the words “No seras olivado,” which means “You will not be forgotten.”
In the four years since Arriago-Santoya’s death, no one has been able to find his family. In a statement, CoreCivic said it meets and seeks to exceed all federal standards for the care of immigrants in detention and works with federal authorities to try to identify each family when someone dies.
ICE said in a news release that it contacted the Mexican consulate, which also was unable to locate next of kin. The Mexican consulate did not respond to our request for an interview.
“In their press releases, they always say it’s a one-time event,” said Priyanka Bhatt, who works for the nonprofit advocacy group Project South.
She advocated for the closure of the Irwin Detention Center in southwest Georgia after a federal investigation found widespread medical abuse there. Bhatt says all deaths in custody are preventable. She says advocates will continue to call on the federal government to close these facilities.
“It’s not a one-time event,” she said. “The eleventh immigrant died at Stewart Detention Center this year. This is a pattern of abuse.”
Editor’s note: A correction has been made to clarify that widespread medical abuse, not “widespread sexual abuse,” was found at the Irwin Detention Center.
