Man with leukemia dies after weekslong stay in Georgia immigration detention center

Immigration

July 31st, 2026

A man held at Stewart Detention Center, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in southwest Georgia, has died after being diagnosed with acute leukemia.

David Goldman / AP Photo

A man who was detained for weeks in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia has died after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Prisciliano Trejo, 29, was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 3 years old.

His family shared on a GoFundMe post that Trejo was arrested in Durham, North Carolina, in mid-June and transferred to Stewart Detention Center in southwest Georgia. While there, he told family members he was coughing up blood, felt sick, and had a bruise that would not go away.

Trejo’s family told the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Detention Watch Network he waited 8 days to receive medical treatment. They said ICE transferred him to a hospital in Georgia, and released him to his family. At that point, Trejo was in a coma, according to the statement.

He died on July 24.

“His father spoke with us and told us that Priciliano was a person in good health and doesn’t understand why, in a short time, his health declined so rapidly and he died,” said Amilcar Valencia, the executive director of the nonprofit El Refugio, in a statement. “He demands answers and the truth.”

Earlier this summer, the Trump Administration rescinded a policy that required investigations into immigrant deaths within 30 days of being released from detention. ICE has therefore not released a report with information about Trejo’s death.

So far this year, three men have died while in ICE custody in Georgia, not including Trejo.

At the time of publication, ICE had not responded to WABE’s request for comment.