Last year, Attorney Margaret Hellerstein received some unexpected news about her client who was in custody with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE.

So February 22nd, I received a call from ICE letting me know they were considering releasing him.

Her client, Martin Vargas Sarayano, was likely going to be set free from a detention center

in San Bernardino County.

But after that notice, Margaret heard nothing.

He didn't call me, nobody called me.

She eventually had to file a missing person's report to try and track down Martin.

We called homeless shelters, police stations.

And that's when she found out something disturbing.

The officer said, oh, he was released on March 5th.

Ice had released them to a hospital while he was comatose.

And then he died.

I'm Gustav Ariano.

You're listening to The Times, Daily News from the LA Times.

It's Friday, May 20, 2022.

Today, we dive into ICE's disturbing practice of releasing detainees on the verge of death.

My colleague Andrea Castillo covers immigration for the Times.

Andrea, welcome to the Times. Thanks for having me, Gustavo.

So Martin Vargas Arellano, who was he?

So Martin was a 55-year-old immigrant from Mexico.

He had come to the U.S. when he was three,

and he was applying for a status that's similar to asylum.

...