Immigration detainee dead after apparent suicide in Georgia, authorities say
ATLANTA -- Federal authorities say a Panamanian detainee at a south Georgia immigration detention center appears to have killed himself.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release that 27-year-old Jean Jimenez-Joseph was found unresponsive with a sheet around his neck in his cell at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin early Monday. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in Americus at 2:15 a.m.
Jimenez is the seventh person to die while in ICE custody in fiscal year 2017 and the first fatality of a detainee from the Stewart Detention Center in more than eight years.
The ICE news release states that facility staff and medical personnel immediately began to perform CPR and contacted medical services.
The preliminary cause of death was ruled "self-inflicted strangulation," according to ICE.
ICE states that it's firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is reviewing the incident, the news release said.
Jimenez was convicted Jan. 5 in Wake County, North Carolina, of stealing a vehicle. He was turned over to ICE on March 2 after his release from local law enforcement custody and was in deportation proceedings.