The Standing Record

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

Lawmakers demand investigation after Nenko Gantchev found unresponsive and dies at newly expanded North Lake ICE facility

Nenko Stanev Gantchev, a 56-year-old Bulgarian national, was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead on December 15, 2025 at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, operated by the GEO Group. ICE described the cause as "suspected natural causes" pending investigation. His death was the fourth ICE custody death in four days that month, prompting Democratic lawmakers to formally demand a federal investigation into medical care and oversight failures at the facility.

Part of: 2025–2026 ICE Detainee Death Surge

Jurisdiction
federal
Location
Baldwin, Lake County, Michigan

Abuses documented

Actors

Nenko Stanev Gantchev, a 56-year-old Bulgarian national, had been held in ICE custody since his arrest on Sept. 23, 2025, pending removal proceedings. Shortly before 10 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2025, he was found unresponsive in his cell at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan — a GEO Group facility that had reopened just months earlier in June 2025 as the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest. ICE issued a press release describing his death as "suspected natural causes, pending further investigation."

Gantchev's death was the fourth in an extraordinary four-day cluster of ICE custody deaths in December 2025: Jean Wilson Brutus died Dec. 12 at Delaney Hall in Newark; Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir died Dec. 14 in Pennsylvania; Delvin Francisco Rodriguez died Dec. 14 in Mississippi; Gantchev died Dec. 15 in Michigan. Together they contributed to December 2025 being recorded as the deadliest month for ICE detainees since records began, and 2025 the deadliest year in ICE custody since 2004.

Representatives Haley Stevens and Hillary Scholten — both of whose districts include Michigan — sent a formal letter to DHS and ICE demanding a federal investigation into Gantchev's death and the conditions at North Lake. They asked whether ICE conducted required medical screening upon intake, whether adequate medical care was provided throughout detention, whether supervisory oversight was maintained, and whether prior complaints about conditions at the facility had been logged and addressed. The lawmakers described the pattern of December deaths as "deeply troubling" and characterized North Lake's rapid reopening and expansion as outpacing the facility's capacity to provide safe and humane conditions. ICE's cause-of-death determination remained under investigation at the time of reporting.

Why we recorded this

The United States guarantees that people held in government custody — regardless of immigration status — retain basic rights to humane treatment and medical care. When the government detains someone, it assumes full responsibility for their safety and wellbeing; that responsibility does not diminish because a detainee is undocumented or awaiting removal. Nenko Gantchev's death was one of four ICE custody deaths in a four-day span in December 2025, part of what made that month the deadliest for detainees since records began. Congressional representatives formally demanded an investigation, citing concerns about whether required medical screening and care were provided — the same pattern of alleged neglect at rapidly overcrowded, privately operated facilities that the archive tracks as corrections abuse.

Sources

  1. Lawmakers seek answers after detainee dies in ICE custody in Michigan — Michigan Advance primary accessed June 17, 2026
  2. Seven Immigrants Die in ICE Custody in December, Marking Deadliest Month This Year — NOTUS secondary accessed June 17, 2026
  3. Illegal alien from Bulgaria passes away at North Lake Processing Center, natural causes suspected — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement primary accessed June 17, 2026
  4. Deaths at Adult Detention Centers — American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) secondary accessed June 17, 2026

See also