Chinese national dies in ICE custody hours after arrest, Beijing demands answers from US
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Chinese national dies in ICE custody hours after arrest, Beijing demands answers from US")
Representative image. Photograph: (AFP)
Since US President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, at least 57 ICE detainees have died, raising alarms to public health experts of increasing death rate.
The government of China has demanded answers from America after a Chinese man reportedly died hours after the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) taken him taken into custody. The 51-year-old deceased identified as Lianyong Wei died on August 23 at a hospital in the Northern Mariana Islands. According to ICE, Wei was arrested on Aug. 21 by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on criminal charges. The accusation against Wei stemmed from an alleged assault on a family of five at their home.
ICE claimed that a guard at the lockup in Saipan discovered Wei being unresponsive during routine morning checks on Aug. 23. Later, he was rushed to a hospital emergency room, pronouncing dead after "life-sustaining interventions were initiated," the agency said, adding that the cause of his death is under probe.
Wei arrived in the US in February 2019 on a two-week authorized stay. Removal proceedings against him stated in July 2026, with his next hearing set for this month. The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles confirmed it had been informed of his death.
"We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant U.S. authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Wei's death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath," the consulate said in a statement.
Death of fifth Chinese national
Trending Stories
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
Wei is at least the fifth Chinese national to die in ICE or Border Patrol custody since March 2025. Of the previous four deaths, two were ruled suicides and two resulted from medical complications, according to Associated Press.
Since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, at least 57 ICE detainees have died, raising alarms to public health experts of increasing death rate. It remains unclear whether Wei received the medical intake screening, which the ICE says it provides detainees within their first 12 hours in custody; medical experts consider such screening essential to preventing deaths.
It's also unclear why ICE took more than a week to confirm Wei's death, which authorities in the Northern Mariana Islands had already announced on August 24, despite the agency's stated goal of releasing detainee-death information within two business days. The Saipan facility has held an average of 18 ICE detainees per day this year, in a territory with a population of roughly 50,000.
