Overview
- Royer Pérez Jiménez, 18, arrived in Noctic, San Juan Chamula, on Thursday, where relatives held a wake and set burial for Friday.
- He was found dead March 16 in the Glades County Detention Center in Florida while held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which called it a presumed suicide as the family received a funeral home document listing “hanged” and the official cause remains under review.
- His case began January 22 when Volusia County deputies arrested him after he gave a different name, leading to charges and an ICE custody order that preceded his transfer to Glades on February 26.
- Three days before he died, he told his father he learned at a March 13 hearing that he no longer had a lawyer and that he planned to sign voluntary deportation the next day.
- Advocates and Mexican officials count him among 14 Mexican nationals who have died in ICE custody in recent records, a pattern critics link to poor medical care, limited legal access, and weak transparency in detention centers.