Sept. 3, 2026, 8:29 p.m. ET
The Chinese government has asked the United States to investigate the death of a 51-year-old Chinese national who died hours after being booked into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the U.S. territory of Saipan, according to news reports.
Lianyong Wei, who had been arrested on several charges after being accused of assaulting a family of five at their residence, died Aug. 23, ICE officials said.
“We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant U.S. authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Mr. Wei’s death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath,” PBS reported the consulate as saying in a statement.
Wei was first arrested on Aug. 21 by officers of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Safety. Saipan is the capital and largest of the Northern Mariana Islands, part of the Pacific’s Mariana Archipelago just north of Guam.
U.S. forces claimed the islands of Saipan and Tinian from Japan during World War II in 1944, and the Northern Mariana Islands officially became a U.S. commonwealth and territory in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The islands are among several American territories in which ICE has detention facilities, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a public research project at Syracuse University in New York that tracks immigration enforcement.
“While many of these detention facilities are concentrated along the southwest border with Mexico, every state and territory—including Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands—has at least one ICE detention facility,” the group said. “Some detention facilities are temporary holding rooms, while others are designed for long-term stays. Some hold only a single person on one occasion during the entire year, while others have tens of thousands who pass through their doors during this same period.”
ICE also has a facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After his arrest, Wei was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disturbing the peace and aggravated assault and battery, ICE said in a news release. With removal proceedings already underway, he was placed in the agency’s custody on Aug. 22.
A corrections officer conducting routine checks found Wei unresponsive about 7 a.m. the next morning, ICE said. He was immediately taken to the Commonwealth Health Care Corporation Emergency Room, where medical staff tried to revive him without success.
He was pronounced dead about 7:30 a.m. Chamorro Standard Time, the agency said. Cause of death is still under investigation.
Wei had been paroled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in February 2019, with temporary authorization to remain in Saipan for a week, the agency said. However, ICE said he remained beyond that date without permission from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued Wei a notice to appear on July 14, 2026. His next hearing had been scheduled for this month.
“Following this incident, the Department is reviewing relevant procedures and will implement any necessary corrective actions to strengthen prevention and response measures,” said Anthony Torres, commissioner of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Corrections, in a statement obtained by PBS.
Wei is the 57th immigrant detainee to die in ICE custody since President Donald Trump took office and the 24th such death in 2026, according to the agency’s detainee death reporting list.
The tally doesn’t include people released from ICE custody while they were ill who died soon afterward.
For instance, according to northjersey.com, part of the USA Today Network, Prisciliano Trejo Ricano, 29, reported coughing up blood, migraines, severe pain and increasing weakness while detained for several weeks in Georgia before being diagnosed with aggressive leukemia. ICE released him while he was unconscious in a hospital and he died eight days later.
A few days later, Jose Chajon-Raxon of Guatemala died at a hospital in Newark, New Jersey, after ICE granted him a “discretionary release.” He had experienced seizure-like symptoms and was hospitalized while in custody.
Neither is included in the list of immigrant detainee deaths. ICE stopped reporting deaths occurring within 30 days of a person’s release from its custody in June, meaning they aren’t subject to previous levels of reporting, internal oversight or Congressional notification.
Advocates and some lawmakers say the change will hamper efforts to determine whether insufficient care in ICE facilities contributed to such deaths.
