ICE detainee dies at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego
Private prison company CoreCivic confirmed that someone in its custody died on Oct. 24 in one of the housing units.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Author's note: This is a breaking news story and may be updated as more information becomes available.
A person in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement died Saturday at Otay Mesa Detention Center.
Private prison company CoreCivic, which operates the detention facility, confirmed the death via email to Daylight San Diego on Monday.
According to the company, which did not provide a named spokesperson, a staff member found a detainee unresponsive in one of the housing units a little after 11:30 a.m. The company said that staff attempted life-saving measures on the person and called emergency medical services for help. It said emergency medical professionals pronounced the person dead at the facility.
The company did not provide information about the person's identity, gender or nationality, and it directed all other questions to ICE. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of Monday evening, ICE had not yet published information about the death in its news releases, where it typically reports information about those who died in its custody. The most recent death listed on the site happened at a facility in Georgia on Friday.
The death at Otay Mesa would bring the known number of deaths this year in ICE custody to 30. In 2025, a total of 33 people died in ICE custody, the highest number on record.
