A British man has died while being held in US immigration detention in Florida, the Foreign Office has confirmed. The man, identified by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as Ben James Owen, was 39 years old. The cause of death was initially attributed to asphyxiation due to hanging, according to BuzzFeed News, which first reported the incident.
The death occurred on Saturday last week at the Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny, Florida. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “Our staff are in contact with the US authorities following the death of a British man in Florida.” Officials are understood to have been in contact with the man’s wife as US authorities investigate.
Ice said in a statement that Owen had entered the US on a temporary visa in July and was arrested on suspicion of felony aggravated stalking, felony false imprisonment, domestic assault, and violating the conditions of his pre-trial release. The agency said the case remains under investigation.
This is the fifth death at a US immigration detention centre in the 2020 fiscal year, which began in October 2019. There were eight deaths in Ice detention in the 2019 fiscal year. The immigration detention population has soared under the Trump administration, with Ice detaining 510,854 people last year, up from 396,448 in 2018.
Medical provision and mental health care at detention facilities have faced increased criticism following a spate of high-profile deaths since 2017. At the end of 2019, House Democrats launched an inquiry into a “troubling pattern of abuse and poor treatment” of migrants in custody.
