A 44-year-old man passed away while in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Georgia.

The Mexican man who went through deportation proceedings had been in the facility since April. After the publication of his story, ICE confirmed his death and identified him as Pedro Arriago-Santoya.

He passed away at Piedmont Midtown Medical Center in Columbus. Staff identified cardio-pulmonary arrest as the cause of death.

Secondary causes of death were listed as respiratory failure, dilated cardiomyopathy or reduced ability of the heart to pump blood, and endocarditis or infection of the heart’s inner linings.

It was on June 6 when he had been deported and was sent to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia.

In 2018, federal investigators discovered that the Steward Detention Center has seen incidents of safety problems, medical staff shortages, and drug smuggling, according to documents published by the Center for Investigative Reporting and Atlanta radio station WABE.

He was then taken to a local hospital on July 20 after complaining of abdominal pain. After two days, he went into cardiac arrest and was placed on a ventilator. He was transferred to the intensive care ward where he remained in a coma until he went into another cardiac arrest.

ICE officials said they had contacted Mexican consulate to inform them about Arriago-Santoya’s death. However, representatives couldn’t get in touch with any of his family members.

“ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of this incident, as it does in all such cases,” said ICE spokesman Bryan Cox.

“Fatalities in ICE custody, statistically, are exceedingly rare and occur at a small fraction of the rate of the US detained population as a whole.”

Arriago-Santoya is the seventh person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October.

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