Legal permanent resident from Trinidad and Tobago deported despite medical emergencies in detention
Dec 2025 · Pearsall, TX, Trinidad and Tobago

Elton Purvis, a 55-year-old legal permanent resident from Trinidad and Tobago and father of nine U.S. citizen children, was detained by ICE on May 13, 2025, at Boston Logan International Airport while returning home for his sons' graduation ceremony. A Rastafarian priest with Type 1 diabetes who was suffering from malaria upon arrival, Purvis was held for seven months across multiple facilities, spending most of that time at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall. According to an ACLU claim filed in July 2026, ICE agents ignored his malaria symptoms for 12 days, confiscated his prescription diabetes and malaria medications, and repeatedly ignored his requests for medical help during multiple diabetic emergencies—he was found unresponsive in his cell at least three times and hospitalized at least three times for dangerously low and high blood sugar levels. The claim alleges that staff ignored his strict vegetarian and lactose-free religious and dietary needs required for his diabetes management, forcing him to rely on leftover cornbread from other detainees and to filter dirty drinking water himself. He was deported in December 2025; the reason for his deportation remains unclear. The ACLU Foundation of Texas filed a $10 million tort claim on his behalf as part of a nationwide effort alleging medical and food neglect across immigration detention centers.
Sources
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