The family of a Costa Rican man, who was deported from the United States in a vegetative state and died shortly after, is pleading for answers from authorities about his catastrophic decline in US immigration custody.
A Healthy Departure, a Tragic Return
Randall Gamboa Esquivel left his home in Costa Rica in good health and crossed the US-Mexico border in December 2024. Having previously lived in the US without documentation between 2002 and 2013, he was detained for unlawful re-entry. He was held first at the Webb County detention centre in Laredo, Texas, before being transferred to the Port Isabel detention centre in Los Fresnos.
Nearly ten months later, in September 2025, the Trump administration flew the 52-year-old back to San José, Costa Rica, via air ambulance. He never regained consciousness. Five weeks later, on 26 October 2025, Gamboa was pronounced dead at a hospital in his hometown of Pérez Zeledón.
A Sister's Desperate Search for the Truth
His younger sister, Greidy Mata, told The Guardian she is struggling to comprehend how her brother's health deteriorated so severely while under the care of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She recounted that Gamboa appeared healthy during video calls until their last conversation on 12 June 2025, after which he seemingly vanished.
"My brother disappeared and we had to reach out to agencies, lawyers, consulates, anyone willing to help," Mata said. "How is it possible that a man that left healthy, tall, chubby, robust, came back dirty, looked abandoned, with ulcers on his entire body, in a vegetative state?"
Medical records show that on 23 June, a transfer request was made to move Gamboa from Port Isabel to Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. An ICE Health Service Corps document stated he was hospitalised with an "altered mental status" and had been taking antipsychotic and antidepressant medications, a claim his family and friends strongly dispute.
A Catalogue of Medical Crises in Custody
By 7 July, hospital documents listed Gamboa with at least ten serious conditions. His primary diagnosis was sepsis, a life-threatening infection response, followed by rhabdomyolysis, a rapid breakdown of muscle tissue. Other conditions included protein malnutrition and toxic encephalopathy, which alters brain function.
A doctor's note from 2 August described a grim scene: "He doesn't move or respond. He does blink at times … there is immobility and mutism present. The patient appears exhibiting the decerebrate posturing." He was assessed as catatonic and receiving nutrition via a tube.
The family only learned of his condition in August, not from officials but from a private lawyer. "The information didn't come from the Costa Rican consulate, nor ICE," Mata explained. Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment, and the director of its migration agency said they were notified of the deportation but received no health details.
In a statement, a US Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary said Gamboa was diagnosed with "unspecified psychosis" and hospitalised for care, adding that ICE provides comprehensive medical services. However, for Gamboa's family, these assurances ring hollow. They are left mourning a brother who left home healthy and returned to die, with no clear explanation for the tragedy that unfolded in American custody.
