Antonia Tovar last spoke to her partner of nearly 40 years at 5:30 p.m. one day in late March. Over the Zoom app, Jose Guadalupe Ramos told her he would call back in a few hours. Instead, at 9:30 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
Ramos, 52, was at the Adelanto Immigration Detention Center, a facility in California where he had been held for a month. His death is part of a growing number of fatalities under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, sparking outrage from families and calls for accountability across the country.
At least 32 people have died in ICE detention facilities in 2025, the year President Donald Trump began his second term. That number represents a 290% increase from 2024, when only 11 deaths were reported. Experts say the rate this year is trending even higher.
Tovar is among those demanding accountability. She and Ramos had been together since they were 13, growing up in the same neighborhood in Guanajuato, Mexico. They came to the United States in the mid-1990s seeking a better life. “I miss my other half,” Tovar told Al Jazeera from her home in California. “We dreamed of growing old together, taking care of each other, having grandchildren.”
She blames officials at Adelanto for failing to prevent her husband’s death. “They could have saved him,” Tovar said. “They killed him because instead of helping, they did nothing.”
