Police find man dead at Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma
A 61-year-old man was found dead at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma on Thursday morning, a spokesperson for the police department said.
Tacoma police Detective William Muse said the man was found partially off the bed and slumped over.
According to Muse, Tacoma Fire Department paramedics had already attempted CPR and pronounced the detainee dead by the time police arrived on the scene. The detainee had first been found by one of the staff members at 10:43 a.m., Muse said. The detainee was pronounced dead approximately an hour later.
Muse said there was nothing unusual or suspicious found but that the man appeared to be alone. It's unclear whether the man was being held in solitary confinement. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner is expected to rule on the cause of the death.
The last time a person died at the facility was in 2018, when a 40-year-old man held in solitary confinement died by suicide.
The news comes as the Washington state Department of Health, as well as the Department of Labor and Industries, have repeatedly tried to inspect the facility. Both departments have been turned away by the private prison company running the center: GEO Group. When asked for comment, GEO Group directed all questions to ICE.
On Friday, the activist group La Resistencia held a vigil at the ICE facility. The group has also reported that detainees have staged two hunger strikes at the facility so far this year. Detainees have long complained of a lack of cleanliness, mistreatment, and other poor conditions, such as finding objects in food.
RELATED: Video shows heavily armed guards detaining hunger strikers at Tacoma ICE center after using tear gas
In 2021, Washington state passed a private prison ban and the Northwest ICE Processing Center was expected to close in 2025. But GEO Group sued over the legislation and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a California law banning private prisons could not apply to federal detention centers.
Last year, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson conceded that court ruling applies here.
The facility can hold almost 1,600 people and detainees can spend months and even years inside as their immigration cases proceed.
This is a developing story and will be updated. This story was originally published on knkx.org.
