ICE detained Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, who died at Adelanto facility after repeated denied requests for medical care

On February 27, 2026, Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, a 48-year-old detainee at GEO Group's Adelanto ICE Processing Center, died at Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville after being transferred from the facility for chest pain and shortness of breath. Gutierrez Reyes, who was arrested by ICE in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9, 2026, began feeling unwell after being made to stand outside in cold rain during a facility yard period on February 18; his wife, Patricia Martinez, said he submitted repeated written requests for medical attention over the following days and was ignored. Martinez said she learned of her husband's death from the Mexican Consulate; ICE said he had been evaluated by medical staff before being transported to the hospital.

Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez called Gutierrez Reyes's death the "9th known death in ICE custody this year." Adelanto detainees had separately sued the federal government the same month over inadequate medical care, alleging a pattern of denied treatment that included a detainee left without oxygen during a seizure and another whose untreated staph infection caused his finger to burst.

Updates

2026-07-14 — Mexico filed criminal complaint against U.S. over Gutierrez Reyes's death [5, 6]

Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs announced it had filed criminal complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and state prosecutors' offices and sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, operated by GEO Group, over the in-custody deaths of 17 Mexican nationals under the Trump administration — including Gutierrez Reyes — and asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate. The cease-and-desist letter demanded an immediate end to practices including denial of prompt medical care.

2026-07-16 — Federal judge ordered ICE to fix Adelanto's water, food, and medical care [7]

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes granted detainees' renewed request for a preliminary injunction in their class-action lawsuit against DHS and ICE — which had cited Gutierrez Reyes's death among the conditions requiring relief — ordering the agencies to provide clean drinking water, sanitary meals, adequate medical care, and improved sanitation at Adelanto, and to admit two independent monitors.

2026-07-30 — Government filed Adelanto compliance plan, said it would appeal injunction [8]

DHS and ICE filed a required 14-day remediation plan in response to Judge Sykes's July 16 injunction but simultaneously notified the court of their intent to appeal the order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and asked the court to stay enforcement pending that appeal. The government's filing claimed the facility already complied with several of the order's immediate requirements; plaintiffs' attorneys said the plan lacked implementation detail and that some directives — including 24-hour access to clean water and meals — remained unmet weeks after the order took effect.