Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel’s family alleges negligence and inhumane treatment
The recent death of a Costa Rican man who was jailed by US immigration authorities in February before being deported in a vegetative state in September has prompted his family and supporters to speak out with allegations of negligence and inhumane treatment.
Nonetheless, a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s administration – which has aimed to deport as many people as possible from the US since his second presidency started in January – maintained in a statement that the medical treatment Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel received before his death is better than many immigrants “have received in their entire lives”.
The statement from assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that Gamboa “illegally reentered the US – a felony – in December 2024”. Citing information from Gamboa’s family, the Spanish-language news outlet El País reported that he had embarked for the US in search of work, and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him in Texas in February.
Gamboa, 52, initially was held at Texas’s Webb county detention center before being transferred to another facility in the state in Port Isabel. His family said to El País that he called them daily – until he seemingly disappeared without immediate explanation in June.
