According to ICE, 47-year-old Peruvian national Julian Curo-Churata died in Louisiana on Tuesday, September 29. ICE did not report a cause of death and said the death was under investigation, and that Julian was held at Richwood Correctional Center, experienced a medical emergency, then was transported to Ochsner LSU Health Monroe Medical Centre in Monroe, Louisiana, where he passed away.
Data from ICE and EOIR reveals much more than ICE has disclosed so far based on inferential case identification with a high degree of confidence. Julian entered the United States on Christmas Day in 2009, almost 17 years ago. Julian was classified as someone with a criminal conviction, but, as I’ve said many times, this is a crude category that does not distinguish between levels of seriousness. Julian’s only criminal conviction appears to be for a “traffic offence.” ICE did not apply codes for drunk driving or other specific traffic offences available to them, which suggests that even among traffic offences, this one was minor. Indeed, ICE identifies this as “driving with expired vehicle registration.” He was not listed as an aggravated felon;
he was classified as the lowest possible risk level while in detention, and he never had a detainer, which means it was unlikely (though not impossible) that he was arrested by local police for other reasons in the past. Public reporting indicates that he was married.
Timeline of the 37 deaths in ICE detention in fiscal year 2026, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, each labelled with the person’s name, date of death, nationality and state, ending with Julian Curo-Churata on September 29 in Louisiana
ICE’s announcement describes the circumstances of the arrest: “Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore arrested Curo during a targeted enforcement operation June 27, 2026, and served him with a Notice to Appear.” But this appears to be incomplete. According to Julian’s likely immigration case, Julian had already been issued an NTA, which was filed at the Hyattsville immigration court back in May alongside an asylum application that was filed the same day. This is common for asylum cases referred to the immigration courts by USCIS, which means that Julian likely filed an asylum application first with USCIS then the agency referred it directly to the court rather than adjudicating it itself. In any case, Julian showed up for a packed hearing in June with over 50 people and the judge gave him time to find an attorney before the next hearing.
He never made it to his next hearing in Hyattsville. ICE arrested him in Maryland on June 27, alongside 13 other people. Julian was the only one with a criminal charge or conviction of any kind—a simple traffic offence while everyone else had no criminal record at all. Julian passed through the absurdly crowded hold room in Baltimore before being sent to Richwood. While at Richwood, Julian’s attorneys filed a habeas lawsuit. At the time of Julian’s death, the judge had not ruled on the case and the government had not responded to the case.
The facility where Julian was held has a history of major violations, including a homicide by the guards at the for-profit facility. ICE began using the facility in 2019, but before that, the nearby city of Monroe used it as its jail. Back in 2015, a man named Erie Moore Sr. was arrested, held at the facility, and died within the month after a severe head injury that went ignored. The coroner ruled his death a homicide. Erie’s family sued LaSalle Management, which runs the facility, and received a $42.75 million jury award for a combination of compensatory and punitive damages. Additionally, in the first six months after ICE started using the facility, Roylan Hernandez Diaz died in federal civil custody at this facility, too.
Fiscal year 2026 was ICE’s deadliest year, but we’ve known that since the 29th person, Denny Adan Gonzalez, died back in April. The deaths recorded here do not include 14 deaths this year that were connected to ICE enforcement, nor do they include another 16 deaths this year that occurred during CBP enforcement activity. These numbers may shift a little bit as I continue to clean up and validate old data for the ICE Detention Mortality Dashboard, so follow along this week for an important update on these data.