By Kianna Joe, Communications Intern
After three long years of litigation, the private prison company CoreCivic paid a settlement to the wrongful death estate of Kesley Vial, a 23-year-old Brazilian asylum seeker who died by suicide while in ICE custody at the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) in Estancia, New Mexico, in August of 2022.
His death is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a pattern of neglect and inhumanity that defines immigration detention in New Mexico and across the country.
When Kesley was five years old, his mother traveled to the United States from Brazil in search of better opportunities to provide for her family. He was separated from her for the rest of his childhood and dreamed of the day he would be able to reunite with her and build a better future for himself.
Kesley’s attempt to get a visa for the U.S. was administratively denied. Finally, like so many others who take great risks to be reunited with their loved ones again, he crossed the border and applied for asylum.
The ACLU-NM legal team working on immigrants’ rights, including senior immigrant rights attorney, Becca Sheff, worked tirelessly alongside co-counsel Chris Benoit, Rachel Higgins, and Mia Touchet to bring justice and closure to Kesley’s family and shed light on the harms suffered by those who have been inhumanely detained in immigration detention facilities in New Mexico.
“The only option Kesley saw was to make the difficult journey to the U.S. with the goal of getting through the system so they could finally be together again,” said Becca. “He was only 23 years old; he still had so much future ahead of him, and he died without any loved ones around him.”
On the day of his fatal suicide attempt, after four months of detention, Kesley was extremely distraught. He had expected to be imminently transferred out of TCDF to be deported but learned that morning that his deportation date had been postponed yet again.
His family was expecting him back in Brazil, and his mother accepted that if he wasn’t able to join her in the U.S., she at the very least wanted him to make it home safe.
“All the people who loved and cared for him were waiting with open arms to welcome him back,” said Becca. “He was making plans for the life that he would have in Brazil after his deportation—even though that wasn’t the dream he had been pursuing.”
Despite Kesley’s obvious signs of extreme distress and his request to speak with a mental health professional, CoreCivic staff failed to take appropriate precautions that day. They allowed him to take a bedsheet to an unoccupied cell to which he was not assigned, locked him in that cell alone, and left him there unsupervised for almost 30 minutes.
ACLU-NM got involved with the case just days after his death, and Becca soon learned how Kesley gave solace to others held at TCDF. “He was just such an old soul, so full of heart, that his friends who had been detained with him bravely spoke with me about who he was and wanted his family to know the light and joy he shared with others,” she said.
Kesley’s friends at TCDF sat for depositions during the case because they wanted to ensure their friend was seen as the bright light he was – and they wanted CoreCivic held accountable for his preventable death.
While Kesley’s family has endured tremendous grief, they take comfort in knowing that he will never be forgotten. The case has brought them a sense of justice, and their hope is that no other family has to endure the same tragic loss of a loved one.
Kesley’s memory and the advocacy his life has inspired will live on. New Mexico enacted the Immigrant Safety Act (HB 9) in February, a state law that bans state and local government entities from contracting with ICE for immigration detention. This victory sends a clear message: the inhumane treatment of people in immigration detention facilities has consequences — and people like Kesley should still be alive today.
