Johnny Noviello spent over three decades in the U.S. as a legal resident. But on Monday, he became the latest person to die in ICE custody. The 49-year-old Canadian citizen, who had epilepsy and relied on seizure medication, was found unresponsive in a federal detention center in Miami. Thirty-six minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
Noviello is now the 10th person to die in ICE custody this year, and the fourth in Florida—a state that has become a flashpoint in President Trump’s mass deportation push.
He wasn’t undocumented. He wasn’t stateless. But he was swept up anyway.
A Legal Resident Died in ICE Custody. His Family Wants to Know Why
ICE took Noviello into custody on May 15, just weeks after he had served time for drug charges in Florida. He was arrested at a probation office and held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami while the agency moved to deport him for violating U.S. drug laws.
According to ICE’s statement, detention staff found him unresponsive at 1:00 p.m. on June 23. CPR was performed. A defibrillator was used. Paramedics were called. But by 1:36 p.m., he was gone.
ICE said it had notified the Canadian consulate. Canada’s foreign minister confirmed that consular officials were “urgently seeking more information.”
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He Wasn’t Supposed to Die
Johnny Noviello entered the U.S. in 1988 on a visa and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. He had a criminal record—racketeering and drug trafficking—but according to his lawyer, Daniel Leising, he was in full compliance with his probation and “wasn’t a danger to anyone.”
Leising told media that Noviello had epilepsy and had been taking seizure medication regularly.
“His family worked painstakingly to make sure that he got his meds,” he said.
Whether Noviello had access to that medication in ICE custody is now a central—and unanswered—question.
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A Pattern of Deaths, and a Pattern of Silence
Noviello’s death is not an isolated tragedy. ICE has reported more in-custody deaths in 2025 than any year since the pandemic. Critics say that poor medical care, overcrowding, and lack of transparency continue to make detention centers dangerous—especially under an administration eager to fill them.
ICE insists its detainees are held in “safe, secure and humane environments” and that no one is denied emergency care. But civil rights groups and immigrant advocacy organizations say otherwise.
Noviello’s case is even more unsettling because he wasn’t undocumented—and because he was a citizen of a close U.S. ally. If a green card holder with a documented health condition can die in federal custody without answers, what does that mean for everyone else?
See also: A Woman Lost Her Pregnancy in ICE Custody—After Begging for Help
