Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the man who died in custody at a Long Island jail died from liver failure, a cause his family called “absurd.”
Santos Banegas Reyes, 42, was found dead Sept. 18 at the Nassau County Correctional Center. He’d been arrested the day before and issued a notice of intent to reinstate a prior order of removal and warrant for deportation back to his native Honduras.
Banegas Reyes was found dead in his cell less than 18 hours later, despite being medically cleared, ICE said. While his cause of death is still under investigation, the agency said “the preliminary cause appears to be liver failure complicated by alcoholism.”
“How could he die so quickly? That is absurd,” his sister told Newsday. An attorney for the family, Oscar Michelen, also questioned the cause.
“The ICE statement does not explain why Mr. Banegas Reyes succumbed to liver failure during the time he was in ICE custody,” Michelen told Newsday.
Banegas Reyes seemed normal and healthy when he left for his construction job on Sept. 17, and videos also showed him acting normally, his sister told the outlet.
On Monday, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said Banegas Reyes died from a “serious, latent medical condition.” He called his death “an unfortunate circumstance,” but said that correction officers “acted appropriately.”
According to ICE, Banegas Reyes entered the U.S. four separate times dating back to at least 2004, when he was arrested for the first time in New York City and deported back to Honduras. He was also deported in 2005 and again 2019, the agency said.
