Authors of The Resistance is elevating the heartbreaking story of Tien Xuan Phan, a 55-year-old Vietnamese national who died in ICE custody on July 19 after being detained at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
Tien was experiencing seizures, vomiting, and unresponsiveness before being rushed to two hospitals—but it was too late. He was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m. The full cause of death remains “under investigation,” but what’s not under investigation is why he was imprisoned in the first place.
Tien had lived in the U.S. for years. Though he had a past removal order, his death is a direct result of medical neglect, carceral cruelty, and a system that treats immigrants—especially Asian and Southeast Asian immigrants—as disposable.
This is not about law and order. This is about death in detention. It is about the racialized violence of ICE, the continued abuse inside immigration prisons, and the silence that follows when someone dies behind those walls.
Tien’s life mattered. His death must not go ignored.
00:00Radio transmission. A message from the AOTR. Say his name.
00:04Tian Zan Phan. Vietnamese national dies in ICE custody.
00:08San Antonio. Tian Zan Phan, a 55-year-old citizen of Vietnam in the custody of U.S.
00:13Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was pronounced deceased by the Methodist Hospital
00:17Northeast at 5.48 p.m. July 19. The cause of death is still under investigation.
00:24Phan was being detained at the Carnes County Immigration Processing Center in Carnes City.
00:29Phan was taken to Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital on July 18 for evaluation due to seizures,
00:34vomiting and unresponsiveness, and was later airlifted to the Methodist Hospital Northeast
00:39for further evaluation. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations
00:43deportation officers arrested Phan June 2. Phan was ordered removed by an immigration
00:48judge on April 2, 2012, but failed to leave the U.S. as ordered.
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