ICE detainee passes away at San Diego-area detention facility

SAN DIEGO – A Russian national in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) passed away Sunday night at the Otay Mesa Detention Center after facility staff and emergency personnel were unable to revive him. 

Igor Zyazin, 46, was pronounced dead by paramedics shortly after 10 p.m. while en route to the hospital. The paramedics were called to the center after facility personnel found Zyazin unresponsive in his bunk. Prior to paramedics’ arrival, facility officers and onsite medical personnel administered CPR. Representatives from the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the Department of the San Diego Medical Examiner were also on scene. The official cause of death will be determined by the San Diego medical examiner. 

Zyazin was transferred to ICE custody April 24 after seeking admission to the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Zyazin presented a Russian passport to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the port of entry, who subsequently determined he had been previously deported in 2009.

At the time of his death, Zyazin was awaiting an interview by an officer with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to determine the next steps in his case. Database checks indicate he had no criminal history in the U.S.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) has advised Zyazin’s next of kin and notified Russian consular representatives. Consistent with the agency’s protocols, the appropriate state health and local law enforcement agencies have been advised about the death, as have the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility.

Zyazin is the sixth individual to pass away in ICE custody in fiscal year 2016. His is the first detainee death at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in two years.