|
ICE said Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias obtained his legal status fraudulently because he failed to disclose a 2004 arrest for theft. His daughter disputes that.
The 56-year-old Mexican man who died Saturday while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody was a lawful permanent resident in the country, the agency said in a statement a day after The Texas Tribune reported about his death.
Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, 56, was found unconscious in his bed at the Rio Grande Processing Center on Saturday morning. ICE said staff performed chest compressions and called emergency services, but he was declared dead about 20 minutes after being found unresponsive. He had been in immigration detention since June.
ICE on Monday said Andrade-Covarrubias’ cause of death is still unknown, as the autopsy was still pending with the Webb County Medical Examiner. The agency also said he received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals.
In the statement, ICE said Andrade-Covarrubias was returning to Texas from Mexico at a port of entry in Laredo when immigration officers detained him on June 26. ICE added that he was detained because officers believed he obtained his legal status in the U.S. fraudulently because he failed to disclose a 2004 arrest for theft during the review process.
The agency was also seeking to deport him, saying that he was in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. Andrade-Covarrubias was supposed to appear at an immigration court hearing on Nov. 2, according to online records.
Andrade-Covarrubias’ daughter, Estefani Andrade, told the Tribune that her father did bring up his criminal record during the application process — and that immigration officials approved his green card application.
Andrade-Covarrubias had lived for decades in Dallas, where he raised three children who were all born in the U.S. He painted apartments and townhomes for a living, and his daughter said he was planning to return to Mexico. He traveled to Mexico often because he was building a house there, she added.
Her dad had a heart condition, she said, along with diabetes and high blood pressure. He had medicine with him when he was detained, but she said staff at the center wouldn’t “give him his medications.”
When he said he felt sick and had a cough, she said her family was especially worried because he was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2021 and the illness took a lasting toll on his health. He sought help from the facility’s medical staff, but he told her that “they would just ignore him.”
She said her dad told her that medical staff at the center brushed off his concerns, even when he told them he was having trouble breathing and felt tightness in his chest.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/19/texas-permanent-resident-ice-death-laredo-green-card/
|
Dallas man who died in Laredo ICE facility was lawful permanent resident