ICE: Immigration detainee appears to have killed himself

ATLANTA – Federal authorities say a Panamanian detainee at a south Georgia immigration detention centre appears to have killed himself.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release that 27-year-old Jean Jimenez-Joseph was found unresponsive with a sheet around his neck in his cell at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin early Monday and attempts to revive him failed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in Americus at 2:15 a.m.

ICE says the preliminary cause of death was ruled “self-inflicted strangulation.”

Jimenez was convicted Jan. 5 in Wake County, North Carolina, of stealing a vehicle. He was turned over to ICE on March 2 after his release from local law enforcement custody and was in deportation proceedings.

Jimenez is the seventh person to die while in ICE custody in fiscal year 2017.