A Cuban immigrant died inside an immigration detention center in Georgia earlier this week, according to a congressional notification sent on Friday and reviewed by the Guardian.
The Cuban man, identified as 33-year-old Denny Adán González, died inside the privately run Stewart detention center. His death is being investigated as a suicide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed González’s death in a press release on Friday morning.
The man is the 18th person to die in 2026 in the custody of ICE, the agency tasked with carrying out Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, along with Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
On Thursday evening, CoreCivic, the private company that runs the Stewart facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, on behalf of ICE, confirmed the death in a statement to the Guardian, without providing many details.
According to the company, on Tuesday night at around 10.26pm, CoreCivic staff inside the facility “called a medical emergency after finding an unresponsive individual inside of his living area”.
The CoreCivic statement added that emergency medical services arrived and attempted to save the man’s life, “but the individual was pronounced deceased before being transported from the facility”.
The death was first reported online on Thursday evening by Andrew Free, an investigative reporter and attorney who tracks deaths in immigration detention centers, citing unnamed sources close to the Stewart facility. González was sent to solitary confinement inside Stewart following an altercation with a guard, according to Free’s report.
ICE’s notification to Congress and press release says the “suspected cause of death is suicide, but the official cause remains under investigation”. The notification said González was pronounced dead at 11.11pm on Tuesday night.
Neither ICE nor CoreCivic responded to questions this week about the report of the use of solitary confinement or any altercation with a guard in this case.
CoreCivic has said previously it is “committed to providing safe, humane and respectful care for everyone entrusted to us”, and ICE said in its press release on Friday it is “committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments”.
In the past, the Stewart facility has faced repeated accusations by attorneys, lawmakers, and federal government investigators of medical misconduct and the inappropriate use of solitary confinement. The facility has the capacity to detain nearly 2,000 people.
González is the fourth person to die by suicide inside the Stewart detention center. In 2017 a young Panamanian immigrant died inside a solitary confinement cell, and in 2018 a Mexican man also died by suicide inside a solitary unit. Last summer, another 45-year-old man from Mexico died by suicide in Stewart.
“As tragedies mount at Stewart, we renew our call for this deadly prison to be shut down,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director of Project South, a Georgia-based civil rights organization. “Instead of taking steps to dismantle this prison, ICE is doubling down. It is time for Congress to take decisive action and shut down Stewart once and for all.”
Immigration detention has ballooned under the Trump administration, as arrest operations surge nationwide. Facilities nationwide have faced allegations of mistreatment and horrific conditions. Along with the rise in detention numbers in the second Trump administration, the number of people who have died in ICE detention has also surged, with 2025 marking the deadliest year in two decades. González is the 30th person to die in ICE custody since October.
According to the congressional notification, González had been previously deported in 2020 but re-entered the US in 2022. González was detained by ICE in January of this year after he was arrested last December for alleged “assault on a female and domestic violence”, the congressional notification says.
