Daily Times

A 58-year-old Indian man who arrived on a flight from Ecuador last week died in custody after American customs officials detained him for not possessing immigration documents while entering the country.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Atul Kumar Babubhai Patel into custody and detained him at the Atlanta City Detention Center for two days. He died on Tuesday afternoon at a hospital.

“The cause of his demise is complications from congestive heart failure,” officials stated.

“US Customs and Border Protection 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 received a medical screening and was found to have high blood pressure and diabetes after he was transferred into ICE custody at the Atlanta City Detention Center.

He was shifted to a hospital on Saturday when he was found to have breathing problem after a nurse checked his blood sugar, where he died.

“We are undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of the incident, as it does in all such cases,” ICE stated.

Patel’s kin was notified about his death through Indian consular representatives. “Fatalities in our custody are ‘exceedingly rare’ and occur at a fraction of the rate of the US detained population as a whole,” the agency added. He is the eighth person to die in ICE custody in 2017.