Antonia Tovar last spoke to her partner of almost four decades at 5:30 one afternoon in late March.
Over the video app Zoom, Jose Guadalupe Ramos told her he’d call back a few hours later. Instead, at 9:30pm, he was pronounced dead.
Ramos, 52, was inside the Adelanto immigration detention centre, a facility in California where he had been held for a month.
His death is part of a rising number taking place in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sparking outrage from families and international cries for accountability.
At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the year United States President Donald Trump took office for a second term.
That marks a 290 percent increase over 2024, when only 11 deaths were reported. Experts say this year's rate is on track to be even higher.
Tovar is among those calling for accountability. She and Ramos had been together since they were 13, having grown up in the same neighbourhood in Guanajuato, Mexico. They came to the US in the mid-1990s in search of a better life.
“I'm missing my other half. We dreamed of getting old together, taking care of each other, of having our grandchildren,” Tovar told Al Jazeera from her home in California.
She blames officials at Adelanto for failing to prevent her husband's death.
"They could have saved him," Tovar said. "They killed him because, rather than helping him, they didn’t do anything."
