The family of a Nicaraguan man who died at a federal immigration facility in Texas after being detained in Coon Rapids earlier this month say they doubt ICE’s initial conclusion that he committed suicide.
ICE said that 36-year-old Victor Manuel Díaz died Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. It attributed his death to suicide, but said the official cause remains under investigation.
“Contract security staff found Díaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room,” ICE said in a statement on its website. “They immediately notified contract medical staff on site to conduct life saving measures.” Díaz is the fifth person to have died in ICE custody just this year.
Díaz is survived by two sons, ages 10 and 15, his mother and five siblings in Nicaragua.
Sahan Journal spoke by phone to his mother, María del Rosario Díaz García, and one of his elder brothers, Jairo Lenín Díaz in the municipality of El Cua in the central highlands of Jinotega, Nicaragua. The region is known for its mountains, cool climate, and coffee production. Family members said he was working to pay for his sons’ education, and to repair his mother’s house.
“He was a person with a lot of strength who wanted to work hard, and who wanted to help his children,” said an older brother, Jairo Lenín Díaz. “He was always tired, but he worked really hard.”
“And that’s how his life ended,” Lenín Díaz said. “That’s all that life had for him.” He expressed the family’s doubts that he could have committed suicide in custody.
“I think it’s very odd that every time somebody in ICE custody dies, they say that that person killed themselves,” Lenín Díaz said. “In a place where they take everything from you, and they’re watching you at all times, how in the world could that happen?”
“The pain is very great,” said his mother, María del Rosario Díaz García. “Whenever someone who is close to you dies, you feel a lot of pain,” she said in Spanish through a translator. “But especially in this case, it was my son and this is a child who I held in my arms and protected.”
Díaz García, 65, said she would have to try to find work now to support her grandsons so they can continue to go to school.
On January 6, the day he was detained, Díaz García spoke to her son at 8:30 a.m. before he left for work, like she said she did every day. She remembers his exact words, “Mom, you know I got to take a shower and then I’m going to eat something because I have to leave for work at 9:30,” she recalled. “I said, you take care of yourself and he said, “Mom, you take care of yourself too. May God take care of you too.”
That was the last time Díaz García would hear from her son.
Manuel Díaz came to the United States in March 2024 in search of work. It was his first time outside of Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua, Manuel Díaz worked as a farmer, growing corn, beans, and some coffee. His family describes him as God-loving, hard working and family-oriented. “He was really good to his kids, and he was a really good son to me,” Díaz García said. He also loved playing sports, especially basketball and baseball.
When he came to America, he started working at a dairy farm milking cows. His family isn’t sure of the farm’s location. He worked at that farm for about one and a half years, but last August he started getting sick, suffering from frequent toothaches then fever and sweating. His mother urged him to seek medical care, but he was fearful because of his status.
Eventually, when he did seek care in Minneapolis, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and hospitalized for a month in November. He lost his job on the farm, but recently started working at a Korean restaurant in Coon Rapids, cooking chicken and washing dishes. He had only worked there nine days before ICE detained him.
Tuberculosis had weakened Manuel Díaz, but he was grateful for the medical care he received in Minneapolis. “He told me, “I feel so grateful to God for healing me,” Lenín Díaz said. “I feel like I have so much strength now and I feel like now I can really start working.”
The manager of the restaurant, who did not want to share his or the restaurant’s name for safety concerns, said that ICE agents came to the restaurant the morning of January 6 and detained Manuel Díaz and three other employees, who were from Indonesia. They did not present a warrant. The restaurant has since been operating at a limited capacity due to a dearth of employees.
Manuel Díaz was concerned and fearful of his safety when ICE started its surge operation in Minnesota in December, his mother said. And so was she. “I did worry about it and I did think that that could have happened. That maybe immigration had taken him, maybe someone had stolen his phone, maybe they [ICE] had taken his phone. I didn’t say it, but I was thinking it.”,
What she would have never thought is that ICE would call, and say her son committed suicide. “I don’t believe for a minute,” she said.
“My brother was a believer in the Lord, and so he knew that only God has power over our own lives. And if you take your own life, then you know that you’re not going to go to a good place,” Lenín Díaz said.
The family hopes that there will be a fair investigation into the reason behind his death. But in the meantime, they’re waiting for his remains to be sent back home. “Even if we can no longer speak to him… the thought that he’s there and not here is keeping us awake. We can’t sleep, we’re exhausted. We just really want this nightmare to end,” Lenín Díaz said. “We want him to come back to us.”
The family, with the help of the Texas Nicaraguan Community, has started a fundraiser to cover the costs of repatriating his remains and arranging a funeral.
