A Vietnamese immigrant died at the Miami Correctional Facility in Indiana on April 1, the same facility where a Cambodian detainee died in February.
What happened
Tuan Van Bui, 55, was found unresponsive by staff who then performed CPR and called emergency services. However, he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., with the cause still under investigation. Bui entered the U.S. in 1990 under the Amerasian Homecoming Act, which created a visa pathway for Amerasian children. Reportedly arrested “over a dozen times on charges including robbery, theft, assault, criminal conspiracy, reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute/manufacture, carrying firearms, resisting arrest and DUI,” he was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2005.
Bui had filed a habeas petition in February to challenge his detention, according to court records. The day after his death, a district judge ordered the government to outline how it planned to remove him by April 6, but the contents of the government’s status report are not public because the habeas case is sealed.
Facility under scrutiny
Bui’s death follows that of 59-year-old Lorth Sim, a lawful permanent resident from Cambodia who died at the same facility on Feb. 18 after being found unresponsive in his cell. The Miami County coroner attributed Sim’s death to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and cited diabetes mellitus as a contributing condition.
The ACLU of Indiana has called for transparency and accountability at the facility, where Freedom for Immigrants logged nearly 70 hotline calls last December from detainees who described medical neglect, inadequate food and physical abuse by guards. Congressional oversight visits have also raised concerns about medical staffing and the scope of care provided by the facility’s medical contractor, Centurion Health.
A growing toll
Beyond the Indiana facility, Bui is the 46th person to die in federal custody during the current Trump administration. His death is also the latest in a series of Asian national fatalities in the detention system. As we previously reported, at least five Asian nationals had died in ICE custody by November, including Huabing Xie, Tien Xuan Phan, Nhon Ngoc Nguyen, Kai Yin Wong and Chaofeng Ge.
The family of Ge, who was Chinese, filed a federal lawsuit alleging the government withheld records related to his detention and care at a Pennsylvania facility. Advocates have warned that language access gaps put Asian detainees at greater risk, making it harder to seek medical attention or navigate facility procedures.
This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.
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