Cuban man held by immigration authorities dies in custody

ATLANTA – A Cuban man who had been held at an immigration detention center in Georgia has died at a Florida hospital, federal authorities said.

Yulio Castro Garrido, 33, died Tuesday night at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release.

Castro was being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia — about 140 miles southwest of Atlanta, near the state line with Alabama — when medical staff diagnosed him with pneumonia, ICE said. He was taken to a hospital in Cuthbert on Jan. 7 and initially resisted treatment, causing his condition to worsen, the agency said. He was transferred to a hospital in Albany on Jan. 9 and put on a ventilator to stabilize him.

After being transferred to Jacksonville on Jan. 17, ICE said Castro slipped into a coma Jan. 22 and never regained consciousness.

Castro had been convicted in December 2016 of conspiracy to transport and move an undocumented immigrant within the United States and was sent to federal prison, ICE said.

ICE said it is reviewing Castro's death, which is standard procedure for deaths in custody.

He entered ICE custody on Nov. 24. An immigration judge on Jan. 4 ordered him deported to Cuba, and Castro waived his right to appeal.

Castro is the second detainee to die while in ICE custody in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, the agency said.