"Samuelino Pitchout Mavinga was pronounced dead by the medical team" of a hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said in a statement updated Wednesday evening the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), revealing the identity of the French national who died on Sunday while he was detained by the American immigration services. "The preliminary cause of death has been identified as a cardiac arrest," the immigration authorities said, adding that an autopsy was to be carried out to determine the official cause of death.
This 40-year-old Frenchman, born in Angola, arrived in New York on November 28, 2018 with a tourist visa, ESTA. He had to leave the United States within three months but was arrested by the Texas border police on November 11, 2019, says the ICE. "Mavinga had been transferred to an ICE center on November 12" in New Mexico continues the statement, "pending his expulsion from the United States". Almost a month later, the man had been transferred to another detention center in the same state and the next day, December 12, this Frenchman was taken to hospital "for treatment and evaluation of weight loss, alteration mental state and possible sepsis ”.
Paris wants to "clarify the circumstances" of his death
The Presbyterian Hospital diagnosed in Mavinga a "twist of the large intestine causing intestinal obstruction". Questioned, a French diplomatic source confirmed having learned Sunday of the death of this French national "for illegal stay on the American territory". "An expulsion procedure to France was underway," confirmed the same source. "We remain in contact with the American authorities to clarify the circumstances that led to the death of our compatriot," she said.
The death follows that of Nebane Abienwi, a 37-year-old Cameroonian who died in October of a brain hemorrhage while being detained by the ICE in San Diego, California. Also in October, a Cuban national, Roylan Hernandez-Diaz, 53, apparently committed suicide while he was detained by the ICE in Louisiana, according to these immigration services. Between December 2018 and May 2019, five children from Guatemala also died in detention after being arrested by American immigration officers.
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