Another man has died in immigration custody. This time in Arizona

A 32-year-old man from Mexico and a longtime Flagstaff, Arizona, resident died on Sunday while under the custody of immigration authorities in Florence.

Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, also known as “Lenchito,” was pronounced dead early that morning at the Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa. The cause of death remained unclear as of Thursday. However, a GoFundMe campaign launched to assist the family with funeral costs states that he likely died due to unattended COVID-19 complications while in ICE custody.

Batrez Vargas was being held in the Central Arizona Correctional Complex in Florence — about 65 miles southeast of Phoenix and over 200 miles south of Flagstaff — since August, after he was sentenced a year of probation after he pled guilty to unlawful flight from law enforcement and possession of a controlled substance charges, according to a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The charges were brought after he was arrested in July by Phoenix police.

Before his conviction and while he was being held in a Maricopa County jail, however, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Phoenix issued an immigration detainer, which prompted his immediate transfer to immigration custody upon his sentencing.

Batrez Vargas’ death marks the 13th death of a person under ICE custody since Jan. 23, three days after President Donald Trump regained control of the White House and set in motion a mass deportation agenda. A bill passed in 2018 obligates ICE to make in-custody deaths public within 90 days. Since then, the deadliest year was 2020, with 18 deaths reported.

His death comes at a time when local law enforcement agencies have come under fire for entering into agreements and working with immigration authorities to detain community members arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, a transfer from local to federal agencies commonly aided by the issuance of immigration detainers. 

The Phoenix Police Department, in particular, holds no official agreement with ICE and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego has in the past stated that it will not enter into a 287(g) Program, which allows ICE to “delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency’s direction and oversight.” In Arizona, the city of Mesa is the only municipal agency that holds this kind of agreement with ICE.

Ambar Vargas, who organized the GoFundMe campaign, wrote that the family is raising funds “to help cover funeral expenses and to bring Lenchito back from Florence, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ, where his family can lay him to rest with the love and dignity he deserves.”

“May Lenchito find in death the peace and freedom that life too often denied him. And may we all be reminded of the importance of compassion, justice, and the sanctity of every human life,” the site states,” Vargas wrote in the GoFundMe page.