Indian Detained at Atlanta Airport Dies in US Custody

Atul Kumar Babubhai Patel arrived at the Atlanta airport on 10 May on a flight from Ecuador.

Patel was transferred into the ICE custody at the Atlanta City Detention Center where he was found to have high blood pressure and diabetes. Image used for representational purposes. (Photo: Reuters)

A 58-year-old Indian man, who was in the US customs’ custody for entering the country illegally, died after being hospitalised for breathing troubles.

Atul Kumar Babubhai Patel was taken into custody at the Atlanta City Detention Center for two days. He died on Tuesday afternoon at a local hospital, with officials stating the preliminary cause of his demise as complications from congestive heart failure.

Patel had arrived at the Atlanta airport on 10 May on a flight from Ecuador.

The US Customs and Border Protection subsequently denied him entry into the country as he did not possess the necessary immigration documents, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.

Patel was then transferred to the ICE custody last week, where he received an initial medical screening and was found to have high blood pressure and diabetes.

On Saturday, two days after being in the ICE custody, a nurse checking Patel’s blood sugar noticed he had breathing issues. He was then shifted to the hospital where he passed away.

The ICE said it is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is “undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of the incident, as it does in all such cases.”

The agency informed the Indian consular representatives who notified Patel's kin about his demise.

The agency added that fatalities in its custody are ‘exceedingly rare’ and occur at a fraction of the rate of the US detained population as a whole.

Patel is the second person to die in ICE custody this week. He is the eighth such individual who died in the custody of ICE in the fiscal year 2017.

Recent deaths have drawn sharp criticism from immigrant rights activists, who have long decried conditions in immigration detention centres and called on the government to close such facilities.

President Donald Trump has called for increasing detention as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration.