A 40-year-old Russian asylum seeker died in Tacoma on Saturday night. Amar Mergensana passed away at St. Joseph’s Medical Center after spending 10 days at the hospital.
Deepak Saini, a public relations representative for the hospital, said that the man died just after 6 p.m.
Mergensana arrived in the United States in December of last year seeking asylum from his native Russia, according to a Crosscut profile of the man. Crosscut had originally profiled him anonymously but the website has since identified him as the deceased man.
Mergensana was transferred to the Tacoma hospital on Nov. 15 after spending over two months on a hunger strike and attempting suicide, according to the Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDC), an organization that advocates for people held at the detention facility. The advocacy group called for an investigation into the man’s death, calling the detention center’s policies part of a “pattern of abuse, violence, callousness and murder of detainees in their custody.”
Angélica Cházaro, a leader with NWDC, said Mergensana faced violence at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since arriving in the U.S. at the Mexican border.
“Mr. Mergansana’s death is an unconscionable and unjust end to the Russian asylum seeker’s life, and followed his 86 days on hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma… He handed his body over to ICE in a plea for mercy and they destroyed him,” Cházaro said in a statement.
Maru Mora-Villalpando, another leader with NWDC, said ICE and GEO Group, the private security prison company that runs Tacoma’s detention center, are unable to keep asylum seekers safe.
“We foresee that ICE will claim that they did everything in their power to prevent Amar’s death, and that they hold none of the blame. They will carry out an investigation, and ultimately clear themselves of any responsibility. But because detained people have been risking everything to speak out—for years now—about the conditions at the NWDC, we know the truth. We know that ICE and GEO Group cannot keep anyone safe,” Mora-Villalpando said in a statement.
Crosscut has been following this story closely and has more details about the man’s death in their story posted on Sunday.
