Brit ‘kills himself’ after being arrested by US immigration for ‘beating wife’
Ben James Owen's death marks the third apparent suicide in ICE custody in four months. He is the fifth immigrant to die in ICE custody since October.
A British father arrested for stalking and assaulting his wife has hanged himself in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Ben James Owen, a 39-year-old man from Stourbridge in the UK, hanged himself at a US immigration detention facility in Macclenny, Florida on Saturday, according to reports from Buzzfeed News and The Guardian.
Owen, who entered the US on a temporary visa in July, was arrested earlier this month by the Port Orange Police Department on charges of felony aggravated stalking, felony false imprisonment, domestic assault and violating the conditions of his pretrial release.
ICE officials said Owen, whose wife reportedly lives in the US, was awaiting trial for a domestic battery charge related to an incident in November 2019.
Three days after Owen was arrested by Port Orange Police, he was taken into the ICE custody. On January 12, he was served his notice for removal by the US immigration enforcement agency.
A preliminary investigation determined that Owen died of ‘self-inflicted strangulation,’ although the investigation is still ongoing.
Owen’s death marks the third apparent suicide in ICE custody in four months. He is the fifth immigrant to die in ICE custody since October.
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On Monday, a 63-year-old Cuban immigrant died of cardiac arrest in a Florida hospital, making him the sixth to die in ICE custody in that time period.
The number of immigrants detained in the US has seen a drastic increase since President Trump came to power.
ICE reportedly detained 510,854 people last year, compared to 396,448 in 2018, 323,591 in 2017 and 352,882 in 2016, according to the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
Medical and mental health care in ICE detention facilities has come under increased scrutiny during Trump’s presidency following a series of high-profile deaths beginning in 2017.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee announced an investigation into the medical care of immigrant detainees in December after a whistleblower alleged substandard care in statements to Buzzfeed News.
ICE officials said the agency spends $269million on health services alone.
In a statement, the agency said: ‘ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of this incident, as it does in all such cases.’