Deportation Proceedings Begin for Mother of ICE Detainee Who Died in Custody

Seven minutes. That is the discrepancy between the time ICE guards claimed to find a man in medical distress and the time the nearest hospital recorded his arrival. Veronica Ramirez, a Maryland resident, became the face of that timeline when her husband, Julian Curo Churata, died in federal custody on Sept. 29. Now, documents obtained by The Washington Post show that Ramirez has been placed in formal deportation proceedings.

Curo Churata, a carpenter from Peru who had lived in the United States for more than a decade, was detained by immigration officers in June. Hospital records indicate he died of cardiac arrest caused by septic shock. While ICE officials stated that guards took him to a hospital just after 8 p.m., medical reports show the facility, located a seven-minute drive from the detention center, did not log his arrival until 10:26 p.m.

Ramirez, who is from El Salvador, entered the U.S. in 2018 and applied for asylum, a claim that was rejected in 2023. Her attorney, Max Schoening, said ICE had not contacted her since that decision until this week. A notice received on Friday, dated three days after a major article on her husband’s death was published online, labels her an "alien present in the United States who has not been admitted or paroled." The document orders her to report to an immigration court for a hearing next month.

Schoening called the timing "clear retaliation" for Ramirez’s public push for accountability. "All of a sudden, when she speaks out about her husband’s death in ICE custody and seeking accountability and truth about what happened, they’re retaliating by trying to deport her and separate her from her kids," Schoening said. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately provide a comment.

Ramirez and Curo Churata lived in Prince George’s County with their 6-year-old daughter and Ramirez’s son. Curo Churata also had an older son from a previous relationship. During his detention, he called his family daily. To protect their daughter from worry, the couple told her he was building a house far away. "She would say, 'Dad, why don't you finish that job? That job is awful, they won't let you come back to us,'" Ramirez recalled. "He would tell her, 'No, my love, I'm almost finished, and then I'll be able to come home and be with you.'"

Since her husband’s death, Ramirez said her daughter has become withdrawn. "She’s afraid, afraid of being alone," Ramirez said. In a statement provided by her attorney on Friday, Ramirez described her fear of losing her child to the same system that took her husband. "ICE has already taken my daughter’s father, my husband, Julian, away from her. He died while in their custody. Now, I am terrified that they might try to separate her from me as well."

The notice requires Ramirez to appear in court next month, a deadline that falls shortly after the release of the initial report on Curo Churata’s death. The family is preparing for the hearing while continuing to seek details from ICE regarding the circumstances of his final hours in detention.