68-yr-old Grandfather Died in ICE's Custody. Healthy

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

https://theappeal.org/ice-death-in-custody-jorge-avellaneda-delgado/

A 68-year-old Grandfather Died in ICE’s Custody. His Family Seeks Answers.

Abelardo Avellaneda-Delgado was healthy when he entered Lowndes County Jail. He died while en route to ICE’s Stewart Detention Center less than four weeks later, leaving his family in shock.

June 13, 2025

[This story was originally published by Atlanta Community Press Collective. Subscribe to their newsletter to get ACPC’s accountability journalism delivered to your inbox.]


When Junior Avellaneda finally got to see his father after weeks of thwarted attempts, the man Lowndes County Jail staff wheeled into the visitation area was a frail, barely responsive shell of himself.

Junior’s father, 68-year-old Abelardo “Lalo” Avellaneda-Delgado, would usually be up by 5 or 6 a.m. for his daily walk to the nearby gas station to get coffee and converse with family, friends, and neighbors in his tight-knit Statenville, Georgia community.

On April 9, Avellaneda-Delgado was arrested by the Echols County Sheriff’s Office for an alleged probation violation. He had been healthy and active at the time of his arrest, according to his family.

But on the morning of Sunday, May 4, Avellaneda-Delgado could not stand, speak, or even pick up the telephone to hear his son on the other side of the glass. “I’d never seen my dad like that,” Junior recalled. His father was unable to make eye contact or communicate at all during their brief visit.

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The records do not explain how Avellaneda-Delgado could have gone from barely conscious and breathing, as TransCor personnel told EMS, to pulseless, breathless, stiff, and cold to the touch in only a matter of minutes.