Cuban man, 75, dies under ICE custody at Miami-Dade's Krome Detention Center
By Alyssa Ramos
June 30, 2025 at 3:02 PM EDT
A 75-year-old man from Cuba died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), making him the fifth detainee to die in Florida this year.
Health officials at the HCA Kendall Florida Hospital pronounced Isidro Perez dead last Thursday night. ICE said the cause of death remains under investigation.
Perez notified the Krome Detention Center's health service that he was having chest pains at around 7 p.m. Thursday, according to ICE officials. Perez had responded to treatment including CPR and an AED shock before he was transported to the hospital for further treatment, according to ICE, who reported he later died.
READ MORE: What we know about 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Camp Blanding immigrant detention center plans
Perez was paroled into the United States in Houston, Texas, in 1966, according to ICE.
On June 5, ICE agents arrested him in Key Largo under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and he was charged with "inadmissibility." It's unclear why he was not allowed to remain in the U.S., but ICE reported Perez was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in federal court in 1981 and 1984.
Krome has drawn the scrutiny of human rights groups and South Florida congressional members who have criticized the living conditions of hundreds of migrants being held at the large facility in south Miami-Dade.
The Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice reported in April to the United Nations Human Rights Council with direct testimony from immigrants “who suffered appalling and shocking treatment at the Krome in violation of basic human rights.”
Earlier this month, a large group of Cuban migrants held at Krome spelled out the letters “S-O-S” with their bodies on the grounds of the facility to protest conditions. The Cuban were angry that they were being held without being told of their release and fearing they may be removed to migrant detention facilities outside the U.S.
The number of Cubans who are targeted for deportation has risen dramatically since Trump took office in January and pledged to end temporary immigration programs that had allowed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians to live and work in the country.
Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.
The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. That humanitarian parole program was launched by the former Biden administration but is being dismantled by the Trump administration.
In an interview with WLRN, former Congressman Joe Garcia, of Miami, blamed the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement policies for failing to protect migrants in federal custody.
" [Perez] served his time, he paid his dues. We can't deport him to Cuba 'cause they're not gonna take him. So we lock him up at a cost of thousands of dollars a week and then kill him in essence, because of course, what kind of treatment are they gonna get in a jail?," Garcia told WLRN.
Perez's death comes after of a Canadian citizen died Monday at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami.
In a social media post, Garcia called on South Florida lawmakers to take action.
"You lose democracy in degrees. It's not like one day to the next, democracy is lost. Every time a freedom is expunged, a process is ignored, a privilege, and a right is denied. That's how you lose democracy and freedom," Garcia said.
https://x.com/JoeGarcia/status/1939705300509987099
Health officials at the HCA Kendall Florida Hospital pronounced Isidro Perez dead last Thursday night. ICE said the cause of death remains under investigation.
Perez notified the Krome Detention Center's health service that he was having chest pains at around 7 p.m. Thursday, according to ICE officials. Perez had responded to treatment including CPR and an AED shock before he was transported to the hospital for further treatment, according to ICE, who reported he later died.
READ MORE: What we know about 'Alligator Alcatraz' and Camp Blanding immigrant detention center plans
Perez was paroled into the United States in Houston, Texas, in 1966, according to ICE.
On June 5, ICE agents arrested him in Key Largo under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and he was charged with "inadmissibility." It's unclear why he was not allowed to remain in the U.S., but ICE reported Perez was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in federal court in 1981 and 1984.
Krome has drawn the scrutiny of human rights groups and South Florida congressional members who have criticized the living conditions of hundreds of migrants being held at the large facility in south Miami-Dade.
The Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice reported in April to the United Nations Human Rights Council with direct testimony from immigrants “who suffered appalling and shocking treatment at the Krome in violation of basic human rights.”
Earlier this month, a large group of Cuban migrants held at Krome spelled out the letters “S-O-S” with their bodies on the grounds of the facility to protest conditions. The Cuban were angry that they were being held without being told of their release and fearing they may be removed to migrant detention facilities outside the U.S.
The number of Cubans who are targeted for deportation has risen dramatically since Trump took office in January and pledged to end temporary immigration programs that had allowed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians to live and work in the country.
Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.
The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. That humanitarian parole program was launched by the former Biden administration but is being dismantled by the Trump administration.
In an interview with WLRN, former Congressman Joe Garcia, of Miami, blamed the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement policies for failing to protect migrants in federal custody.
" [Perez] served his time, he paid his dues. We can't deport him to Cuba 'cause they're not gonna take him. So we lock him up at a cost of thousands of dollars a week and then kill him in essence, because of course, what kind of treatment are they gonna get in a jail?," Garcia told WLRN.
Perez's death comes after of a Canadian citizen died Monday at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami.
In a social media post, Garcia called on South Florida lawmakers to take action.
"You lose democracy in degrees. It's not like one day to the next, democracy is lost. Every time a freedom is expunged, a process is ignored, a privilege, and a right is denied. That's how you lose democracy and freedom," Garcia said.
https://x.com/JoeGarcia/status/1939705300509987099