A Southern California immigration detention center faces renewed scrutiny after federal officials confirmed the death of a detainee last week, marking the fourth fatality since September and contributing to what is becoming one of the deadliest years on record for people in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, who was being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, died on March 25, according to ICE. He and the other three decedents were Mexican nationals, prompting the Mexican government to demand an immediate review of the facility, pointing to “serious omissions and evident deficiencies” in medical care.

Ramos-Solano’s death raises the nationwide death toll in ICE custody in last three months to 14.

The figures reflect a sharp increase compared to recent years. In 2025, 33 people died in ICE custody, according to agency data, compared with 11 in 2024, seven in 2023, three in 2022, and five in 2021.

Ramos-Solano’s death has intensified concerns about conditions at the Adelanto facility, which is already the subject of a federal class-action lawsuit alleging widespread abuse. Detainees claim they have been subjected to mold, disease, inadequate food and water, and systemic medical neglect.

Advocates say the latest death underscores those claims.

Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her organization received a hotline call from a witness who reported seeing Ramos-Solano struggling to breathe and in visible distress. The caller alleged there was a delay in providing medical assistance.

“We’re on track now to have the deadliest year in ICE history for people detained in their custody,” she said. “Given the conditions and the level of medical negligence we are already challenging in court, this should not come as a surprise.”

In a statement, ICE said staff found Ramos-Solano unresponsive in his bunk and immediately initiated life-saving measures, including CPR, while calling emergency services. He was later transported to a hospital in Victorville, where he died. The official cause of death has not yet been determined.

Ramos-Solano was arrested during a targeted law enforcement operation in Torrance on Feb. 23, according to the statement. The agency said he was convicted last year of possession of a controlled substance and theft.

ICE maintains that Ramos-Solano received consistent medical care during his detention, noting he had been diagnosed with diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension upon intake in February and was treated daily for those conditions.

The statement said the agency was “committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments.”

GEO Group Inc., the private contractor that operates the Adelanto facility, declined to comment, referring inquiries to ICE.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the probe when it learned of Ramos-Solano’s death on Friday.

The consulate in San Bernardino said it contacted Ramos-Solano’s family to provide assistance and support. Officials said they are also in communication with authorities to ascertain the cause of death, obtain the complete medical record and review the circumstances surrounding the death.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates its call to the responsible authorities to ensure that these regrettable cases do not continue and demands an immediate review of the Adelanto center, due to the serious omissions and evident deficiencies in the provision of medical care to the people in its custody,” the statement read.

“The Government of Mexico will exhaust all legal and diplomatic avenues to raise awareness of the current problem and address this case, reiterating its commitment to ensuring the protection and dignity of Mexican citizens abroad.”

During a press conference last week, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, the top North American official in Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said 13 Mexican nationals have died either during immigration operations or while in immigration detention.

Government officials said four of those have been in California, according to the Mexican government. The ages of the people who have died were between 19 and 69 years-old.

Of the 13, Mexican officials said that includes six who died of medical complications, four from suicide, two during ICE operations and another in the shooting at the detention center in Dallas.

In Adelanto, the three others who died were Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old former DACA recipient, who had been held in Adelanto for nearly a month before his death in September; Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, 56, who lived near Costa Mesa, and died Oct. 23, about a week after being detained; and Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, 48, who died on February 27.

Velasco referred to the deaths as “absolutely painful, heartbreaking, and of course, also absolutely unacceptable to the Mexican government.” Two lawsuits have already been filed by the families of these individuals, he said.

In his blockbuster 1982 novel “Space”, the writer James A. Michener wove a gripping tale of astronauts trapped on the Moon during a major solar storm. Warnings from Earth didn’t come soon enough to save them from death by radiation sickness. To avoid such a tragedy happening with the Artemis crews (and as NASA did with the Apollo crews of the past), the agency is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to monitor solar activity. If the Sun acts up, the teams will be able to send warnings and instructions to the Artemis crews to protect them.

Human missions to the Moon are more vulnerable to space weather than astronauts on the International Space Station (who are sheltered somewhat by orbiting within Earth’s magnetosphere). A trip to the Moon takes crews outside that protective “shell” that wards off most solar radiation that poses a threat to Earth.

Space weather is caused by outbursts from the Sun such as X-class flares and coronal mass ejections. They carry a stream of highly charged particles toward Earth and out through the Solar System. The radiation from those storms is lethal to most life. If a significant solar storm occurs near the Artemis II crew, it could raise radiation levels inside their spacecraft or on the lunar surface. Too high a total lifetime exposure can contribute to increased risks of developing cancer or health disorders that could impair cognition and performance. During the Artemis II mission, NASA wants to minimize that risk. That’s why spacecraft are built to withstand some of the radiation, and why astronauts are trained to “hide away” during intense storms.

Protecting the Crew From Solar Outbursts

The energetic particles that stream from the Sun during an outburst travel through space on the solar wind. Ultimately, the swarm can overtake the spacecraft from all directions, swamping it with radiation. “It’s more like you’re sitting in a bathtub and it’s gradually filling with water,” said Stuart George, a space radiation analyst at NASA Johnson.

Fortunately, the “swarm” doesn’t happen all at once. It takes time for the ejected particles to travel from the Sun to Earth, giving the observation teams and the astronauts time to plan. Plus, the spacecraft are “hardened” to some extent. For example, the Orion capsule carries radiation sensors as part of an assessment system. They measure the radiation doses and dose rates in different parts of the ship. The astronauts also wear radiation dosimeters that measure the dosage as they work. If something happens, and a high amount of radiation is detected, onboard alarms call their attention to the event and they can take steps to monitor the situation closely. If the radiation is too strong, the as tronauts will be prompted to take shelter.

So, let’s imagine that the alarms sound and it’s bad enough that the crew has to take action. The astronauts need to be “behind” walls thick enough to slow the charged particles down or stop them completely. That’s why the crew is trained to reconfigure the environment inside the capsule. They remove stowed equipment and other materials from storage bays and use it to add mass between themselves and incoming particles. The Artemis II crew in particular will be testing this procedure during the upcoming mission. “Once crews add mass to the places that tend to be hotter in terms of radiation exposure, they can then continue to go about their duties,” George said.

Using Data from Solar Probes

The Sun is particularly active these days, and observers are carefully monitoring its sunspot activity for signs of future outbursts. Those events can be pretty strong and complex. The NASA/NOAA teams will be using data from various probes around the system. These include such Sun-watching spacecraft strategically placed across the solar system, such as NASA’s recently launched Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, the ESA (European Space Agency)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-19 satellite, and many others. In addition, the Mars Perseverance rover will get a glimpse of the far side of the Sun and watch space weather outbursts from the side of the Sun invisible to Earth during the Artemis II mission.

*NASA’s Perseverance Rover captured these images of sunspots crossing the Sun from its vantage point on the Martian surface between February 24 – 27, 2026. Mars is currently on the opposite side of the Sun, giving the rover a view of sunspots not visible from Earth. Perseverance will monitor sunspots leading up to and during the Artemis II launch window, giving the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office (M2M SWAO) and Space Radiation Analysis Group (SRAG) teams advance notice of regions that could produce solar eruptions before they rotate onto the Earth-facing side of the Sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS/SSI*

Outbursts from the Sun aren’t the only radiation hazards the Artemis astronauts will face. As they leave Earth, they’ll pass through the Van Allen Radiation Belts, which pose a threat. In addition, cosmic rays can also deliver radiation hits to astronauts in space. Together, the radiation exposure from these sources is expected to be comparable to a 1-month stay on the International Space Station, or about 5% of an astronaut’s career limit. Any exposure from solar radiation events would add to this baseline.

So, unlike the unlucky astronauts of Michener’s dramatic book, the Artemis astronauts should have a wealth of information available to them well in advance of solar outbursts that could send clouds of charged particles their way. The Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office, based at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, will continuously assess solar activity and any eruptions that occur. The team will send its analysis to the Space Radiation Analysis Group, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Together, their forecasts and those from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, plus real-time measurements from inside the Orion spacecraft will inform recommendations for the flight control team.

For More Information

To Protect Artemis II Astronauts, NASA Experts Keep Eyes on Sun

Artemis Mission