Another Death in Georgia ICE Detention Exposes Deadly Neglect at Stewart Center

Denny Adan Gonzalez, a 33-year-old man from Cuba, died Tuesday while detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that Gonzalez’s death is being investigated as a suspected suicide. Gonzalez had been held at Stewart since January after being transferred from North Carolina, where he was arrested on allegations of assault and domestic violence.

Stewart Detention Center, operated by private prison giant CoreCivic, is one of the largest immigrant detention facilities in the country. ICE detains thousands in Georgia, with numbers rising under the Trump administration’s second term. This latest death is the second in Georgia ICE custody this year, following the January death of 34-year-old Heber Sanchaz Domínguez at the Robert A. Deyton Detention Center in Lovejoy.

Ryan Gustin, CoreCivic’s senior director of public affairs, stated that medical staff attempted lifesaving measures and summoned emergency services, but Gonzalez was pronounced dead before transfer to a hospital. Gonzalez’s death is the 18th reported in ICE custody nationwide in 2024.

Advocates warn that these deaths are not isolated incidents but part of a deadly pattern of neglect and abuse in ICE detention centers, particularly those run by for-profit companies like CoreCivic. Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director for Project South, an immigrant rights nonprofit, condemned the conditions, noting “four known suicides at Stewart and 14 deaths” overall at the facility. “None of these deaths, none of these suicides should have happened,” Shahshahani said.

The Stewart facility’s track record of deaths and suicides underscores the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and an end to for-profit detention that profits from human suffering. As ICE continues to expand detention in Georgia, the risks to detainees’ lives grow ever more acute, demanding immediate action from federal authorities and policymakers.

We will keep tracking these tragedies to hold ICE and CoreCivic accountable for the systemic failures that continue to cost lives behind bars.