Strange Fruit · Updated October 2, 2026, 11:33 AM CDT
On the morning of August 5, 2025, a 32-year-old man named Chaofeng Ge was found dead at an ICE detention center in Pennsylvania.
ICE’s own review of his death, dated November 17, 2025, says he was found “bound at the hands and feet” and that the facility did not give him medical care “within the safe limits of practice”.[2]
It also says an autopsy ruled his death a suicide.[2]
ICE posted that review online on September 25, 2026. By September 30 it was gone, according to The American Prospect.[6]
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Both are free, at any hour.
Correction: an earlier version of this post, published October 2, 2026, repeated ICE’s August 2025 death notice as if it were new and left out the family’s lawsuit and ICE’s own findings. This version replaces it.
1. Who he was
Ge was a citizen of China. Newsweek reports he lived in Queens, New York.[4]
ICE’s review traces his path. Border Patrol arrested him near Tecate, California, on November 22, 2023, for entering without being admitted, then released him with a notice to appear.[2]
In January 2025, police in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania, arrested him on theft and computer-related charges. On July 31, 2025, a Dauphin County court convicted him of accessing a device issued to another who did not authorize its use. It sentenced him to six to 12 months, with credit for time served.[2]
The same day, ICE arrested him and took him to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg.[2]
His brother, Yanfeng Ge, told Newsweek: “I want justice for my brother, answers as to how this could have happened, and accountability for those responsible for his death.”[4]
2. Five days at Moshannon
On August 1, a nurse screened Ge through a Mandarin interpreter. According to ICE’s review, he denied any past medical or mental health conditions and any thoughts of suicide or self-harm, and he was placed in general population.[2]
Several hours later, a provider signed off on a transfer summary from his previous facility. ICE’s reviewers say it documented a past suicide attempt, a diagnosis of unspecified affective disorder and use of an antidepressant. The provider did not evaluate him or refer him to behavioral health.[2]
Four days later, at about 5:20 a.m., two detention officers counting the unit found him in the handicap shower stall of C-Unit, pod 4.[2]
3. The morning of August 5
ICE’s review lays out the minutes. Officers left to alert the control room. Two medical staff arrived within four minutes. At about 5:25 a.m. he was cut down and CPR began. Staff called 911 at about 5:31. Paramedics arrived at 5:44 and took over.[2]
At 6:03 a.m., the Clearfield County coroner pronounced him dead.[1][2]
ICE announced the death on August 6, 2025. That notice said only that “the cause of death is under investigation.”[1] It did not mention that he had been found bound. The same notice said ICE provides comprehensive medical care and that “at no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”[1]
4. What ICE’s reviewers found
A mortality review committee met on October 24, 2025. It concluded the facility “did not provide Mr. GE medical care within the safe limits of practice.”[2]
It listed four findings:[2]
- Medical staff did not receive Ge’s transfer summary at intake or act on it when they did.
- Custody staff who found him “delayed life-saving measures.”
- Medical staff did not deliver effective CPR, and the facility’s policies did not spell out who must do what in an emergency.
- Custody staff did not complete “timely or thorough routine checks” in his housing unit.
The review also credited the facility for some things. Medical staff responded in under four minutes, and the facility made changes the same day, including a new process to make sure medical staff review transfer summaries at intake.[2]
The review records the manner of death as suicide. Nothing in the version ICE posted says who or what bound his hands and feet.[2]
Watch the family’s lawsuit reported when it was filed:
CBS 21 News, a news organization, on YouTube (November 13, 2025): “Family of ICE detainee found dead at detention center sues federal government.”
5. The family’s questions
On November 12, 2025, Yanfeng Ge sued ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in federal court in the Southern District of New York.[3]
The suit is about records. His lawyers sent a Freedom of Information Act request on September 9, 2025, asking for records on his brother’s detention and death. The complaint says ICE “has not responded to, or even acknowledged,” it.[3]
The complaint also states the family’s account. It says Ge was found “hanging by his neck, with his hands and legs tied behind his back,” and that “no one in the facility could speak Mandarin.” It alleges staff “refused to even try to communicate with him, much less offer him the mental health care that he so urgently needed.”[3]
It adds that no one from the GEO Group, the company that runs the facility, has offered the family “condolences, much less an explanation.”[3]
The family’s attorney, David Rankin, told Newsweek: “What’s worse is the lack of mental health care which could have prevented this tragedy.”[4]
Newsweek reports it saw an autopsy report that described Ge bound at the wrists and ankles. It says the medical examiner noted there had been other reported incidents of people who hanged themselves having done something similar, and that there were no obvious defense wounds.[4]
Newsweek asked DHS whether Ge had been tied up. A DHS spokesperson did not answer, and repeated that in-custody deaths are “taken seriously, and are thoroughly investigated by law enforcement.”[4]
An ICE spokesman told WPSU the agency does not comment on pending litigation.[5]
6. What we still don’t know
The documents agree on a lot. Ge was found hanging. An autopsy ruled it a suicide. ICE’s reviewers found failures before and after he was found.
They leave open what the family is asking. No document we found explains how his hands and feet came to be bound. DHS has not answered that question for Newsweek. The records the family requested in September 2025 were still unproduced when it sued.[3]
His is one of seven suicides among 33 mortality reviews ICE posted on September 25, 2026, according to The American Prospect. The Prospect says nearly all of the reviews found significant failures. It counts at least 65 people who have died in immigration detention since President Trump returned to office, a tally it describes as nonscientific.[6]
ICE did not respond to the Prospect’s questions, including why it removed the reviews.[6]
Watch the wider picture:
CBS News, a news organization, on YouTube (April 16, 2026): “New data finds sharp increase in ICE detention deaths.”
Where it happened
The pin marks the facility’s street address, 555 Geo Drive, as located by OpenStreetMap. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors.
About the Strange Fruit Series
“Strange Fruit” is the title of a 1939 protest song, first written as a poem by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday, about lynchings in the American South. This series follows reports of people found hanged that received little national attention. A story appearing here does not mean the death was a lynching or a crime. Many hangings are ruled suicides. We report what officials say, what families say when a source quotes them, and what is still not known, and we link to the original reporting.
How to Verify This Yourself
Read the documents directly: ICE’s mortality review of Chaofeng Ge (archived copy), ICE’s August 6, 2025 death notice, and the family’s federal complaint.
References
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE detainee passes away at Pennsylvania’s Moshannon Valley Processing Center (news release, August 6, 2025). ↩
- ICE Health Service Corps. Mortality Review — Report of Findings: Chaofeng Ge (November 17, 2025; posted by ICE September 25, 2026, since removed; archived by the Internet Archive September 28, 2026). ↩
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Yanfeng Ge v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, No. 25-cv-9430, Complaint (filed November 12, 2025). ↩
- Newsweek. Man detained by ICE found dead, hanging with hands and feet tied, attorney says (November 18, 2025). ↩
- WPSU. Family of man who died in ICE custody in Clearfield County takes legal action (November 13, 2025). ↩
- The American Prospect. Disturbing Pictures of Neglect in ICE Mortality Reviews (September 30, 2026). ↩
Investigative methodology: this report was written by hand from the primary documents and news reports listed above. Quoted passages are verbatim from those sources, and each claim is attributed to the document or report it comes from.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
Verified NewsroomPrimary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.