ICE: Detainee who died at Nassau jail didn't get adequate medical care

Nassau County Correctional Center staff did not properly care for a man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before his death last year, according to a federal report obtained by Newsday.

Santos Banegas Reyes, a 42-year-old Honduran father of two, was detained by ICE on Sept. 17, 2025, and booked into the Nassau County jail. The next morning, corrections staff found Banegas Reyes unresponsive in his cell, and he was pronounced dead at 6:45 a.m. ICE later said he was experiencing alcohol withdrawal.

But federal investigators found that Banegas Reyes had received "inadequate medical care" during his stay at the East Meadow jail, according to an ICE review of the death. Staff there "did not provide Mr. Banegas medical care within the safe limits of practice," the report states.

Oscar Michelen, an attorney representing Banegas Reyes’ family, said that the report — which he was unaware of until Newsday brought it to his attention — was an "outrage."

"If he had gotten average care — average medical care, standard medical care at the facility — we believe he would still be alive," Michelen said in an interview. "We're not talking about some, you know, esoteric disease that no one is aware of. We're talking about a very common thing for hospital emergency rooms to deal with, which is alcohol withdrawal."

Inadequate care

The six-page report on Banegas Reyes’ death, dated Dec. 11, 2025, was completed by the ICE Health Service Corps, a division of the federal immigration enforcement agency.

Banegas Reyes' report was among several dozen such reviews posted late last month on ICE’s website, then removed days later. Newsday was able to obtain the document via an archived version of the federal website.

Project Salt Box, a Baltimore-based government accountability nonprofit, first noticed and republished the death reports on its own website earlier this week.

It's unclear whether the documents were ready or intended for public release. The top of each page of the report obtained by Newsday reads, "PREDECISIONAL/DELIBERATIVE PROCESS - FOR INTERNAL DISCUSSION ONLY/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION," in words that are struck through. 

Banegas Reyes was arrested on Sept. 17, 2025, while on his way to a construction job, and was booked into the East Meadow jail.

There, jail staff failed to properly treat the new arrival, who exhibited a hernia, tremors and alcohol withdrawal symptoms, according to the report. Corrections staff "did not appropriately monitor or treat" those withdrawal symptoms, which can include nausea, sweating and hallucinations, the document reads. 

Staff did not record the severity of Banegas Reyes' symptoms or continue to monitor them after his intake screening, and there was no record of a "referral to higher level of medical or behavioral health care," the report found.

And medical practitioners did not inform the jail’s "custody staff" that Banegas Reyes was experiencing those symptoms before he was cleared to join the jail's general population.

The report also found the jail’s staff failed to make sure Banegas Reyes was alive during routine checks on detainees that night: "NCCC custody staff did not look inside cells during rounds/wellness checks to ensure proof of life," the report reads.

ICE's review recommended that the findings be shared with federal and county officials, and that a "corrective action plan, if applicable, is implemented and sustained."

An ICE spokesperson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

"When someone is in your custody … you have a legal obligation to take care of their physical and mental care in custody," said Michelen, the family's attorney.

The document did commend jail staff for responding to the scene, administering CPR, and calling 911 quickly after discovering the man unresponsive in his cell. 

Chris Boyle, a spokesperson for County Executive Bruce Blakeman, said that the county executive had not yet reviewed the report.

Blakeman, who is running for New York governor, entered Nassau County into an agreement with ICE early in President Donald Trump's second term that allowed the federal agency to hold detainees at the county jail. In August, a New York State law banning local agreements with ICE went into effect, and the Nassau County jail is no longer permitted to hold immigration detainees. 

Tommy Meara, a spokesperson for NUMC, which provides medical care in the jail, said in a statement that the hospital was “deeply saddened” by Banegas Reyes’ death and “our thoughts are with his family.”

The statement continued, "We cooperated fully with the review and continue to evaluate our processes to ensure the highest standard of care for every patient we serve."

'A legal obligation'

ICE initially said Banegas Reyes appeared to have died of liver failure, a claim that was disputed by family members at the time. The agency released a two-page report on the death in February saying that Banegas Reyes was experiencing alcohol withdrawal.

Neither that report, nor the one obtained by Newsday, identifies a specific cause of death. 

The report comes just months after the New York Attorney General's Office completed its own review of the matter and declined to open a larger case.

Banegas Reyes’ death "does not appear at this time to meet the requirements for OAG to have investigative authority or criminal jurisdiction" under the law, Jose Maldonado, the chief deputy attorney general for criminal justice, wrote in a June 8 letter to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly that was obtained by Newsday.

Kirstan Conley, a spokesperson for the New York State Commission of Correction, said that an investigation into Banegas Reyes’ death is ongoing.

The revelations could increase scrutiny on the East Meadow jail. Democratic lawmakers made several surprise trips to inspect conditions while the facility held ICE detainees, but largely did not raise any specific concerns about their care.

— With Belisa Morillo