Yimi Alexis Balderramos-Torres was only 30 years old when he was found unresponsive in his cell in ICE custody on Sunday. The Honduran migrant soon died at a hospital near Houston in Humble, Texas.
Balderramos-Torres was at the Houston Contract Detention Facility when he couldn’t be revived and was taken to the hospital. According to ICE, the autopsy is “pending” to determine what he died from.
Balderramos-Torres has made several unsuccessful attempts to enter the U.S. to escape the dire economic situation in Honduras. He was denied entry into the United States at the southwest border on May 17, after U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso deemed him to be “inadmissible” and sent him back to Mexico, ICE told ABC News.
Ten days later, Balderramos-Torres entered the country illegally and was detained by local law enforcement during a “routine traffic stop.” He was transferred to ICE custody on June 6, pending his removal to Honduras, according to ICE.
Related Article: Sweeping ICE Raids Expected ‘Sometime After July Fourth’
The Honduran migrant is the sixth detainee to die in the custody of ICE since the start of the fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2018.
Deplorable conditions in the detention centers and camps have contributed to both illness and death in previous years.
Just this week, Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas released videos purportedly showing the conditions inside two migrant detention centers along the border with Mexico. Castro snuck his phone into the tour of the facility. He said the system is “broken.”
Our border patrol system is broken. And part of the reason it stays broken is because it’s kept secret. The American people must see what is being carried out in their name. The @HispanicCaucus led a delegation of members of Congress to visit 2 border patrol facilities.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019
The video shows women from Cuba in a cell on a concrete floor with no running water and the only option was to drink from a toilet.
This moment captures what it’s like for women in CBP custody to share a cramped cell—some held for 50 days—for them to be denied showers for up to 15 days and life-saving medication. For some, it also means being separated from their children. This is El Paso Border Station #1. pic.twitter.com/OmCAlGxDt8
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019