Border Patrol agents were observed driving in the city of Costa Mesa on the rainy Tuesday of October 14th, around 11:50 a.m., as they conducted a “roving” raid, grabbing any individuals off the street who they believed to be undocumented.
Several community watch members in the area at the time confirmed that a total of three people were kidnapped. One of the individuals they grabbed was Gabriel Garcia Aviles, who is described as a beloved member of the community; a 54-year-old family man who has a work permit and has been in the U.S. for over 30 years.
Aviles would pass away just ten days later after being in custody in the Adelanto Detention Facility, with no clear cause of death given, leaving his family distraught and desperately looking for answers. His passing marks the second death this year with a connection to the San Bernardino County-based detention center.
L.A. Taco spoke with Avelis’ daughter, son, and daughter-in-law about their experience with the Adelanto Detention Facility. They explained that they wanted to tell their story to raise awareness of the harmful reality of these raids, in the hopes it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
The horror all started with a life-changing phone call between Gabriel and his daughter, Mariel, at 1:02 p.m., just a little over an hour after his kidnapping.
After she answered the phone, Aviles simply asked Mariel what she was doing. She responded that she was at the grocery store and asked her father where he was calling from.
Aviles went on to explain that ICE got him and that he would be sent to Mexico. Mariel, in shock and disbelief, told him not to sign anything that they give him. She overheard officers at Santa Ana Federal Building, where Aviles was being held, in the back, asking him to state the name of the detention center and its phone number, so Mariel could call the front desk for more information. They then ended the call.
Mariel later spoke with the front desk at the Santa Ana Federal Building, who explained to her that Aviles would be getting transferred to Los Angeles in the next 45 minutes.
Mariel asked if she could speak with her father once more before the transfer, but she was turned down. The person at the front desk told her they would ask if it can be done and that, if approved, she’d receive a call from her father. That call never came.
Worried, Mariel periodically checked ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System and noticed he was no longer in the database around 7:30 p.m.. He was subsequently transferred to the Adelanto Detention Facility.
Mariel called the Adelanto Detention Facility and staff told her that Aviles was in the beginning of being processed and had just arrived, so no further details could be provided. Mariel called back between 10:00pm and 11:00 p.m. and was told by a detention officer that he was sent to the detention center’s medical unit.
Mariel tells L.A. Taco that they refused to elaborate on his condition.
The following day, Wednesday, October 15th, Mariel called back at approximately 8:00 a.m. The front desk said they would transfer Mariel to an officer for further information on her father. However, that officer would tell Mariel that it was the front desk’s job to provide further details.
So Mariel once again called back to the front desk, who responded with, “That’s weird, it’s the officer’s responsibility to provide that information.” The front desk staff told her next that she would reach out to the officer to find out what was going on, as Mariel was placed on a brief hold.
When the front desk staff member returned to the call, she notified Mariel that her father was in the hospital. Mariel asked why he was being hospitalized. The front desk attendant asked Mariel to call back later so she could gather more information to provide her. But when Mariel called back, the staff member was no longer there.
Distraught, Mariel reached out to other family members for help. On Monday, October 20th, after calling nearly 200 times throughout the weekend, she finally received some information. An Adelanto Detention Facility officer stated that Aviles was in their custody at the facility and had been there the entire time.
The family would later find out that this was a complete lie.
Adelanto staff would continue to withhold information and make promises of transferring them to another line that could assist her, but that would never connect. Or someone would simply hang up on the family. Mariel was consistently sent to voicemail when calling Aviles’ assigned officer, who never once returned her call.
On Thursday, October 23rd, at 9:31 a.m., Mariel received a phone call from Homeland Security that came through a private number. They called her to let her know that they have “unpleasant news.”
The caller told Mariel that her father was in critical condition at the Victor Valley Global Medical Center in Victorville, and should let the rest of her family know, so they can say their final goodbyes. They also told her that Aviles would no longer be in ICE’s custody.
Confused and angry, Mariel and her family had no idea that Aviles was in such extreme conditions. Conditions that would lead him to an untimely death.
The family went on a long drive to the Victor Valley Global Medical Center and arrived at approximately 12:30 p.m., where the front desk initially couldn't seem to find any information or even a file on Aviles.
When Mariel’s sister-in-law eventually mentioned that her father was previously being held in ICE custody, the front desk staff member made a quick phone call and had a nurse come over to escort the family to Aviles.
No physician spoke with the family. They say the only time a physician finally had a conversation with them was right before they called the time of death.
Despite Homeland Security’s previous statement, when Mariel approached her father’s room she saw immigration enforcement agents were there monitoring Aviles.
Mariel tells L.A. Taco that when she finally saw her father for the first time, he was in a much worse condition than she initially thought he would be. He remained unconscious, intubated, and had dried blood on his forehead. She says that there was also a cut on his tongue and blood on his lips, and that he had broken teeth and bruising on his body.
Mariel was told by a nurse that her father had been dealing with alcohol withdrawals. However, Mariel questioned this, as she knew he was initially sent to the medical unit in Adelanto that same night he had been taken by Border Patrol.
Mariel described the room her father was in as messy, unkept, and says that staff members had left trash from their lunches in the room. She states that she even saw syringes laying out on the countertop.
To make matters worse, Mariel and her family soon discovered that the night before, around 12:55 a.m., her father had gone into Code Blue. A Code Blue is a hospital emergency alert that signals a patient is in cardiac arrest or is having another life-threatening emergency that requires immediate resuscitation.
The hospital staff told them that Aviles had been admitted on October 15th and had been there the entire time. She demanded to know why they waited this long to call her, but was never given a clear answer. The staff consistently told her that they couldn’t provide extensive details.
When the family was finally able to speak to the charge nurse, he explained to the assembled family members that Aviles had been maxed out on all medication and they were unable to provide any additional aid to improve his condition.
The same charge nurse also told them that he had been trying to find a way to provide Mariel Power of Attorney, which would give her the ability to make decisions for her father, but said it would be too late.
Aviles’ daughter-in-law spoke with L.A Taco about a harrowing experience she had while in the hospital.
She says that during her visit, she and her husband took the elevator downstairs towards the parking lot to grab snacks they had left in the car. When they walked out of the elevator and turned around the corner, they noticed what appeared to be another detainee being pushed in a gurney by four officers.
She says the man was wearing the same orange jumpsuit and pants that Aviles had in his bag upstairs. The man was cuffed to the bed by his foot and was intubated.
She discovered later that the man was taken to the ICU unit directly across from Aviles’ unit. When she returned upstairs, the officers who were pushing the man’s gurney were greeting the officers who were there with Aviles. That man’s condition remains unknown.
Mariel’s family remained waiting around her father’s unit, 227, while continuously being monitored by officers from the Adelanto Detention Facility.
At 7:30 p.m., a charge nurse approached the family and told them that Aviles’ heart beat was beginning to slow down. The family tells L.A. Taco that she “showed no hurry or rush to get to him. Very nonchalant.”
The family stood beside Aviles as nurses and staff pooled into the room and called a Code Blue. They removed the family from the room and asked them to go to the waiting room. A physician finally spoke to the family, and stated that medical staff let Aviles’ heart rest twice and there is no heart activity.
He told them that they were going to try a third time, but if it that should fail, there’d be nothing they could do. He then allowed them back into Aviles’ unit, where they said they watched as multiple staff members were attempting to resuscitate Aviles.
But there was still no heart activity. Gabriel Garcia Aviles was pronounced dead at 7:42 p.m.
Roughly five minutes after his passing, Aviles’ daughter-in-law stepped outside the room towards an Adelanto Detention Facility officer and demanded that they provide a release form. He told her that a supervisor would be coming down to speak with her momentarily.
Moments later when she saw the officer, he said that they had spoken with his supervisor and were unable to provide her additional details or records.
Mariel asked why the supervisor didn’t speak with the family, as they originally said they would, to which the officer replied, “Why would my supervisor talk to you? She’s my supervisor.”
Aviles’ daughter-in-law was told that Gabriel’s passing “changed everything” amid other vague answers.
Approximately three hours after his passing, Mariel spoke to the coroner on scene who gave her a questionnaire. The coroner told her that, due to the answers she had given, Aviles’ death would be ruled as occurring due to “natural causes.”
When Mariel asked the coroner about an autopsy being performed on her father’s body, the coroner responded that it wasn't needed.
Mariel was later asked by another staff member to go to the records office the following morning to retrieve her father’s medical records. When Mariel arrived at the hospital, she was told by the receptionist at the front desk that they have no medical records office on the grounds and that she would need to call in to get information.
The morning after Aviles’ death, around 9:00 a.m., Mariel received a call from Adelanto Detention Facility, asking her to provide an address where her father’s belongings could be shipped. She told the officer on the line that she would prefer to go in person to the facility.
The officer told her that Aviles’ belongings were ready to be collected then verified that she could go retrieve them. He asked her what time she would arrive and Mariel verified with the officer that she would be there around noon.
When Mariel arrived at the facility, she was directed to the east wing and was met with staff that she described as “rude.” They were laughing amongst themselves and she had to ask them to help her as they seemed to ignore her standing by the front desk.
She told the officers that she had arrived to collect her father’s belongings.
A front desk officer brazenly stated that they had received no information about her being approved to obtain her father’s belongings. This was before they had even asked her for a name to look up in their system.
Mariel told the officers that she had spoken to an officer on the phone earlier that morning, who said she could come around noon to grab her father’s belongings after her father passed away the night before. After hearing the news, the front desk officer then began to help Mariel after offering her condolences.
They explained to her that she could go pick up her father’s belongings in the west wing. Mariel told them that the officers from the west wing were the ones who sent her over to them. Next, they asked Mariel to sit down while the officers made a call.
Mariel felt that too much time had passed by for a simple phone call and went back up to the desk to ask why it was taking so long, when she had already verified that the belongings would be ready for her to collect.
Next, the front desk told her to call the west wing, because they “don’t know what’s going on.” The west wing staff responded that they were waiting for her to head over to them. Mariel explained that she was told to sit and wait.
The staff member on the phone asked her to take a seat once more and said they would send someone to assist her. Mariel waited for approximately twenty minutes until a woman arrived and took her to a separate room.
The woman attempted to hug Mariel and offer her condolences, but Mariel tells us she had to back away. She explained to the staff member that they were obviously not sorry and detailed how horrible it was for the detention center to never notify her about her father dying.
The staff member simply told Mariel that she is not “ICE” in response.
Mariel was finally given her father’s belongings while continuously demanding that officers give her discharge paperwork from Adelanto, since she had received a phone call from the Department of Homeland Security telling her they were releasing her father from custody.
Staff explained to her that there is no discharge paperwork because he passed away.
Mariel was consistently given excuses that did not match the statements of other officers or agencies.
Over two weeks later, they have received no paperwork from Adelanto or the Victor Valley Global Medical Center, aside from a copy of the inmate property release form she demanded upon signing for her father’s belongings.
Mariel tells L.A Taco that her father’s two cellphones are nowhere to be found, with Adelanto staff claiming he had no cellphones on him.
Gabriel Garcia Aviles, 54, was a father of two and grandfather of three. He was described as always happy and loved bikes.
Mariel and her brother shared fond memories of going on bike rides to the store with their dad, a hard worker who was always willing to help someone in need.
Mariel tells us that she spoke with her father every day. That he had sounded healthy and well when they last spoke, just the day before his kidnapping.
L.A. Taco reached out to the Department of Homeland Security three times for a comment on Gabriel’s death. On November 3rd, it responded to us by linking to its news release about his passing, calling the deceased an "illegal alien" and listing the cause of death as "complications from alcohol."
