A suspected illegal immigrant who was arrested in Prince William County died while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorities said.
Anibal Ramirez-Ramirez died Sunday at the University of Virginia Medical Center, ICE said in a statement. Staff at the Farmville Detention Center, where he was being held, found him unconscious on Saturday morning. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with liver failure, according to ICE.
ICE said Ramirez was an El Salvadoran national who was arrested by Virginia State Police on Sept. 27. Maj. Mandy Lambert of the Prince William County Adult Detention Center said Ramirez was booked into the facility that day and released to ICE on an immigration detainer a day later.
Lambert said she didn’t know Ramirez’s exact charges, but they involved violations for being a pedestrian on an interstate.
An autopsy will be performed to determine his exact cause of death, ICE said. The agency said he was transported by ambulance to Southside Community Hospital in Farmville, then airlifted to U.Va.
In a statement released through the organization Mexicans Without Borders, Ramirez’s family criticized ICE’s handling of the situation, saying the family wasn’t informed about “the arrest and his health issues while he was in jail.”
ICE says Ramirez’s family was notified after he was hospitalized Saturday and relatives remained with him at the hospital.
Ramirez was working with a construction company, Mexicans Without Borders spokesman Ricardo Juarez said.
