WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th August, 2020) A Canadian man taken in custody by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has died after contracting the novel coronavirus, ICE said in a statement.
"James Thomas Hill, 72, was pronounced dead at 11:42 p.m. local time by hospital medical staff at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia," the statement said on Friday. "As an aggravated felon, Hill was subject to mandatory detention by ICE under federal law. At the time of his death, Hill was in ICE custody pending removal to Canada."
On April 15, Hill was remanded into ICE custody after being released from the Rivers Federal Correctional Institute in Winton, North Carolina, where he was serving a 26-year prison sentence for health care fraud and distributing a controlled substance.
Hill was held at the detention center in Farmville, Virginia. The detention center has been a site of the largest novel coronavirus outbreak at a US immigration detention facility.
Hill was first admitted to the Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville with coronavirus-like symptoms on July 10 and was transferred to the Lynchburg General Hospital a day later.
The 72-year old Canadian national, who served more than 13 years of his 26-year sentence, was ordered removed from the United States to Canada by a judge on May 12.
