CHICAGO () — For many families in Chicago, the name “North Lake” has come to carry a sense of dread.
The North Lake Correctional Facility in rural Baldwin, Michigan, has become a key destination for people taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the past year, hundreds of ICE detainees have been transferred there, making it one of the largest immigration detention centers in the Midwest.
Some of those detained have since been deported, while others fought their cases and were able to return home to Chicago. But for one man, there will be no homecoming.
Nenko Gantchev, 56, died at the North Lake facility on Dec. 15, 2025. His death is among dozens reported at ICE detention centers across the country, where advocates and families have raised ongoing concerns about conditions behind bars and access to medical care.
Members of Congress have recently questioned Department of Homeland Security officials about the number of deaths in custody. The DHS Office of Inspector General has also announced an evaluation into conditions at detention facilities.
DHS officials have pushed back on claims of a surge in deaths, insisting that people held by ICE receive “the best healthcare they have received [in] their entire lives.”
For the families and friends of those who have died in ICE custody, the grief is compounded by what they describe as a lack of information from federal authorities about what happened.
“He was on track to enjoy a retirement that he’ll never see now,” said Anna, a close family friend of Gantchev.
What happened to Nenko Gantchev?
Gantchev’s family and friends say he was trying to do everything right.
After living in Chicago for 30 years, and owning his own business and real estate in the area, Gantchev and his American wife appeared for a green card interview last September when agents working under Operation Midway Blitz detained him. He was eventually transferred to the North Lake Correctional Facility in Michigan, where he would have sporadic video calls with his wife every week.
But 82 days after his arrest by ICE agents, Gantchev died.
Gantchev’s wife and friends, who spoke with him while he was detained, believe prison officials did not take his deteriorating health seriously.
“There was no accommodation for his [type two] diabetes, the fact that he needed any kind of special diet,” said Anna, who asked the I-Team not to use her last name out of fears of retaliation for speaking out. “He was not feeling well, progressively.”
Through death investigation reports, doctors’ notes and surveillance footage obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, the I-Team pieced together what happened the day Gantchev died, and the thin investigation that followed.
Heavily redacted surveillance footage shared with Lake County, Michigan Sheriff’s Office investigators, and obtained by the I-Team, recorded Gantchev’s final hours inside the North Lake ICE detention center on December 15.
At around 8:58pm that evening, North Lake guards can be seen doing cell checks, and at Gantchev’s cell, a guard writes he “shined his light on Nenko to check on him… Nenko moved his arm over his face,” and the guard kept going with his nightly rounds.
But three minutes later, the guards said they heard a “crashing sound” and can be seen moving towards Gantchev’s cell.
There, guards said they saw Gantchev “taking shallow gasps of air” and “turning blue.”
“I radioed control while checking for breathing, and safely moving the detainee to a fetal position,” one of the North Lake guards would later write that night.
North Lake’s medical staff responded and, in the surveillance footage, Gantchev can be seen wheeled out of his cell on a stretcher.
Despite local EMS arriving, it was too late: Gantchev was pronounced dead less than an hour after guards first shined their lights on him.
A Michigan Medical Examiner ruled the manner of death “natural,” caused by a heart attack with Gantchev’s type two diabetes listed as a “contributory condition.”
Investigators with the Lake County Michigan Sheriff’s Office investigated Gantchev’s death and determined “no further investigation [was] required” as the “death was deemed to be from natural causes.”
The I-Team shared the Michigan Medical Examiner’s autopsy and investigation reports with Dr. Laszlo Madaras, Chief Medical Officer for the nonprofit Migrant Clinicians Network.
“It’s just a tragedy that is bound to happen more,” Madaras said. “The odds are high that the diabetic in detention can have a heart attack or a stroke.”
Weeks before his death, Ganchev’s wife told the I-Team he was seen by the detention center’s medical team, and they acknowledged his health was in decline.
A Detainee Death Report prepared by ICE officials stated Gantchev “received… referrals for cardiology consultation and echocardiogram based on abnormal cardiac findings.”
But his family says the offsite doctor visit and echocardiogram never happened. It’s unclear whether the appointment was scheduled or not.
Local immigrant rights groups and physicians have raised concerns over access to medical care for people detained inside North Lake.
In a letter addressed to ICE officials, advocates with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and ACLU noted Gantchev’s death and other cases where, “individuals in custody… have been denied or experienced significant delays in accessing both emergency and routine medical care.”
ICE detention center deaths nationwide
Gantchev’s case is just one of many stories nationwide.
The I-Team found at least 45 people have died in ICE detention centers since the start of President Donald Trump’s second administration, according to ICE records.
During President Trump’s first administration, the average number of ICE in-custody deaths per year was 12, including a sudden increase during the pandemic.
Half of the in-custody deaths that have occurred since Jan. 20, 2025, were in privately-owned prisons like North Lake.
Facilities owned by GEO Group, the company that owns North Lake, recorded 14 deaths in ICE custody since last February: more than any other private prison company.
A spokesperson for GEO Group referred all questions and requests for comment to DHS officials.
DHS officials told the I-Team, “There has been no spike in deaths.”
“Consistent with data over the last decade, as of May 29, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.008% of the detained population,” a statement from a DHS spokesperson reads. “As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained higher a standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens-including providing access to proper medical care.”
At a recent Homeland Security oversight committee hearing, Illinois Representative Lauren Underwood pressed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin over detention center deaths, who responded saying Illinois detention centers are not safer.
“Does DHS have any official specific internal goals or policies to reduce deaths in custody?” asked Underwood.
“Ma’am, your numbers just aren’t accurate,” Mullin responded. “This is 0.009% of deaths, and we’ve had 54 total in the president’s time.”
Mullin continued, “Those are dangerous accusations you’re making because in the state of Illinois, they’re twice as high. You’re twice as high to die in a state penitentiary in Illinois than they are in a detention center.”
Six-month payment processing gap
Attorneys and doctors have raised concerns over a potential six-month gap in offsite medical care for ICE detainees that started late last year.
“Deaths in ICE custody have spiked to almost fivefold what they were before,” said Kyle Virgien, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. “And there are a variety of factors that explain that. One of them certainly is the lapse in payment processing.”
Since 2002, ICE had an agreement with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to process all medical bills for anyone in ICE’s custody who needed offsite care.
ICE would pay for it, and the VA would process the claims.
But attorneys and immigration advocates say that changed last October.
“For purely political reasons, the department stopped processing those payments, leaving ICE without a means to process payments to medical specialists and to pharmacies,” Virgien explained.
Republican lawmakers have accused the agency of “robbing veterans” to pay for detainee healthcare, and on Oct. 3, the VA “abruptly and instantly terminated” its with agreement with ICE, according to federal contract records reviewed by the I-Team.
In the agency’s urgent request for a new payment processing contractor, ICE officials wrote the gap in care was “an absolute emergency… lack of this support will delay critical medical care for [detainees] such as dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, chemotherapy, etc.”
“The VA’s sudden termination has created an unusual and compelling situation because ICE’s ability to pay for medically necessary offsite care has been compromised since ICE has no system in place to process or pay medical claims,” ICE officials noted in their request for a new contractor.
ICE secured a new contractor this past May, but for six months, it’s unknown how many medical appointments or payments were delayed.
“There are many people who are not receiving the specialty medical care that they need desperately, and it’s creating serious emergencies and even deaths,” Virgien told the I-Team.
Illinois Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-3rd District) announced this month she and other lawmakers have opened an investigation into the delay in processing payments for offsite medical care for ICE detainees.
Gantchev’s family said North Lake’s medical staff told him he needed an offsite echocardiogram in November.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the I-Team, “The lapse in payment did NOT affect [Gantchev’s] medical care.”
If Gantchev hadn’t died, he may have been released by now.
His warrantless arrest was one of hundreds cited in an ongoing court case as potentially unlawful under a pre-existing consent decree.
Gantchev is survived by his wife, and two sons.
