12/21/2025
🚨ICE WITHHELD MEDICAL CARE FROM A DIABETIC MAN. HE DIED. THEN THEY MARKED HIM AS "RELEASED."
This ICE system will not change--unless Trump orders it--and we know he will NOT do that!!
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🚨ICE WITHHELD MEDICAL CARE FROM A DIABETIC MAN. HE DIED. THEN THEY MARKED HIM AS “RELEASED.”
This is what happens when the government decides all immigrants are criminals.
Nenko Gantchev was 56 years old. He lived in Chicago for 30 years. He entered the U.S. legally on a student visa, had a work permit, paid taxes, owned a trucking company, and was married to a U.S. citizen. He was in the middle of his green card application through that marriage when ICE arrested him.
Not for a crime.
Not because he was dangerous.
But because he showed up to a USCIS interview.
From the moment ICE took him, Nenko was treated like a criminal… not a husband, not a business owner, not a man who followed the legal process for decades.
A federal judge ordered Nenko released on bond, along with hundreds of others, after finding these arrests were likely unlawful. ICE itself classified him as low risk to public safety.
He remained detained as the government fought that release order in court.
Nenko was diabetic. While held in a private ICE detention facility in Michigan, his health deteriorated. His family says he was denied proper medical care and a medically appropriate diet. He repeatedly told them he wasn’t feeling well. They sent commissary money just so he could eat food that wouldn’t spike his blood sugar.
They hoped he would be released because of his medical condition.
Instead, ICE kept him in custody.
On December 16, on the day of their 8 year wedding anniversary, his wife didn’t receive his usual phone call. When she searched the ICE detainee locator, it said Nenko had been “released.”
The next morning, she learned the truth.
Nenko Gantchev had died in ICE custody.
ICE now claims his death was from “natural causes,” while providing no meaningful explanation to his wife. Other detainees report he asked for medical help and did not receive it in time.
This is not an isolated incident.
This year alone, nearly 30 people have died in ICE custody, making 2025 the deadliest year on record. Every time, officials insist it’s a tragedy… not the predictable outcome of a system that dehumanizes immigrants by default.
Nenko wasn’t a criminal. He was labeled as one.
When a system treats people as disposable, and dehumanizes them, neglect becomes routine.
When neglect becomes routine, people die in custody.
And when they die, the paperwork says “released.”
A U.S. citizen lost her husband.
And unless this system changes, she will not be the last.
