“Big failure”
Ismael, a round-faced man with black-rimmed glasses, a mustache, and close-cropped hair, came to the United States when he was just five years old.
Southern California became his home, and as an adult he became eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary protection from deportation.
However, he was convicted of drunk driving and had his DACA status revoked in 2015.
His family remembers him as a caring son and uncle who was always willing to buy new clothes and school supplies for his nieces and nephews.
“Ismael always took care of his brothers. He just had a big heart,” said his brother Jose Miguel Ayala. “He was very protective not only of us, but also my mom and dad.”
He was 39 years old when he was taken to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
Two weeks after arriving, Ismael told his family that he had a high fever and developed painful ulcers on his back.
On September 18, 2025, Adelanto employees initiated a Code Blue Alert for Ismael, informing him of a life-threatening medical emergency. Medical staff rushed him from his dorm to the clinic in a wheelchair.
Ismael was given painkillers, ointments and fiber supplements, according to ICE documents.
But Ismael should have undergone a physical examination and been given antibiotics, said Cuneo of Doctors for Human Rights, which investigated the case.
“That’s a huge failure,” Cuneo said.
That weekend, a few hours after Lucia’s visit, Ismael’s condition worsened. Shortly after midnight Sunday, ICE records say he was vomiting, shaking and sweating.
He was then sent to the intensive care unit, where he went into cardiac arrest within minutes of arrival and later died, according to ICE documents.
“I believe that Ismael’s death could have been completely prevented with timely treatment,” Cuneo said. “It was a simple abscess that was not treated in a timely manner.”
Fault Lines obtained the coroner’s findings, which revealed that Ismael was in critical condition when he first arrived at the hospital, a fact omitted from ICE’s public report on his death.
The coroner’s report also contradicts ICE’s timeline for Ismael’s death. It shows that Mr. Ismael went into cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of September 21, almost a full day before his death. However, medical staff managed to restore his heartbeat after being intubated.
This contradicts the ICE report. It only notes that his pulse stopped once on the morning of September 22, just before his death was announced. ICE described his condition on Sept. 21 as “calm and cooperative,” but said he did not have any heart problems.
“If they had given him medical care and the things he needed, he probably would have been here with us,” Lucia said.
In a statement about Ismael’s death, ICE said detainees received “comprehensive medical care” throughout their custody.
But California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Fault Lines that when he toured the state’s jails, he found “quite the opposite.”
“We went to these facilities. We went to Adelanto. We did the physical examination ourselves,” Bonta explained.
“If what the ICE spokesperson said is true, Ayala Uribe would also be with us today.”
An internal mortality review board also found that the care provided to Ismael at Adelanto “exceeded safe limits of practice,” according to documents obtained by US media earlier this year.
It has also been suggested that medical staff were slow to respond to calls about Mr Ismael’s deteriorating health in the days leading up to his death.
