Officials are investigating the death of a 42-year-old man, who was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow.
The federal agency identified the man as Santos Reyes-Banegas in a Sept. 23 news release.
ICE Long Island Fugitive Operations and federal partners arrested Reyes-Banegas on Sept. 17 and issued him a warrant of removal and deportation. He was detained at the correctional facility in East Meadow, and upon arrival, went through medical intake, where he was cleared for detention within two hours.
He was found dead in his cell on Sept. 18, less than 18 hours after his arrival.
Preliminary reports released by ICE state that Reyes-Banegas was in liver failure from alcoholism, although the cause of his death is still under investigation.
Reyes-Banegas was an illegal alien and citizen of Honduras, according to ICE, who illegally entered the U.S. at least 4 times. On Sept. 3, 2019, he was arrested in Kentucky for failure to appear on an unknown charge and booked at a detention center. Kentucky officials released Reyes-Banegas to ICE custody. He returned to Honduras on Oct. 24, 2019.
ICE’s report states that Reyes-Banegas illegally re-entered the U.S. on an unknown date and time before his arrest.
As reported by the Herald in July, Nassau County has actively cooperated with ICE since February, when County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced that officers would collaborate with the federal agency in a “targeted” crackdown on undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds. The partnership included allocating 50 local jail cells for the federal agency to hold immigrants. The county receives $195 in reimbursements from the federal government per detainee.
Using the jail to hold ICE detainees sparked concern from state Democrats, including Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and State Sen. Julia Salazar.
Solages and Salazar visited the jail in July to inspect the conditions of cells being used by ICE.
After the visit, Salazar told reporters that there was people detained by ICE in the jail “who have not been charged with a crime.” She added that they did not see egregious conditions. Detainees were being fed lunch and had access to medical care and to phones to call attorneys.
Blakeman, at a news conference after Solages and Salazar’s visit, said they “were satisfied.”
He was unable to address if all detainees had committed crimes, because “ICE does not share that information with us,” he said. The target, he added, is for “people who are here illegally” — a criteria he said that was presented to the county by ICE.
The Nassau County’s Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the jail, is conducting an investigation of Reyes-Banega’s death. New York’s Attorney General Letitia James and the state’s Commission of Correction are also reviewing the incident, as required by law.
“The 42-year-old man who was found dead in the East Meadow detention center was not the first to lose his life because of ICE, and we fear he will not be the last,” Salazar said in a written statement, shared with the Herald on Sept. 19. “ICE is blatantly targeting people of color in these routine arrests, and the lives destroyed and even lost because of ICE is ripping apart long established, immigrant communities.”
