Canadian man dies while in ICE custody in Florida

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A Canadian citizen who has been a permanent resident of the United States for more than 30 years has died while being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, the agency said.

Johnny Noviello, 49, was pronounced dead by the Miami Fire Rescue Department on June 23 at 1:36 p.m. The cause of his death is under investigation, according to ICE. The agency said that he was found unresponsive at 12:54 p.m. Medical staff immediately began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator shock, and called 911.

ICE said that Mr. Noviello was detained at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center pending deportation proceedings. It said that he entered the United States in 1988 with a legal visa and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. Mr. Noviello was convicted in Volusia County of a number of charges including drug trafficking in 2023, ICE said.

President Donald Trump began an aggressive crackdown on immigrants the day he took office, leading to increasing ICE raids, detentions and deportations across the country. The move has been criticized for stoking fear and sweeping up law-abiding residents. The fact that Mr. Noviello is a foreigner with criminal convictions made him particularly vulnerable to deportation.

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ICE arrested him on May 15, 2025, at the Florida Department of Corrections Probation office, issued a notice to appear and charged him with removability, because of his drug convictions, according to the statement.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations provided notice of his death to Canada’s consulate, the statement said. ICE said it is committed to ensuring those in its custody are in “safe, secure and humane environments” and that medical care is provided. “At no time during detention is a detained illegal alien denied emergent care.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in a post on X that the government was notified of the death of a Canadian citizen while in custody in the United States.

“Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from US officials. I offer my sincere condolences to the family,” she wrote. Ms. Anand said no further details would be provided at this time to respect the family’s privacy.

Daniel Leising, a criminal defence lawyer who represented Mr. Noviello, said on May 15 he received a frantic call from Mr. Noviello’s father, Angelo, who told him he’d been taken into custody by ICE.

Mr. Leising, who doesn’t practise immigration law, said he suggested an immigration lawyer. He said Angelo called him again recently saying he needed his help because no one could reach his son.

On Thursday, Mr. Leising said a reporter from the Miami Herald had called, telling him that Mr. Noviello had died in ICE custody. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

“Johnny was one of the most quiet, unassuming, friendly guys,“ he said, adding, “If you saw him and talked with him, you would think to yourself how on earth did this guy get himself into this much trouble?”

Mr. Leising said that Mr. Noviello was sentenced to 12 months in the county jail on his drug convictions, but he only served four months because he had credits from serving time when he was initially arrested and good behaviour.

Court records in Florida show Mr. Noviello would have turned 50 on Canada Day. He was a long-term resident of Florida, and his family had a business, Daytona Auto Sales.

In November 2017, Mr. Noviello was charged with three drug offences ‐ selling oxycodone, conspiracy to sell methadone, and conspiracy to traffic hydromorphone. His co-accused in the case was his father, Angelo, who would now be 80, according to court records.

Federal officers for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency filed allegations in a Florida court stating that the family enterprise doubled as a venue for the drug-dealing of prescription medicines ‐ and that’s why the DEA undertook a sting operation, involving police agents and wiretapping.

The DEA arrest occurred on Nov. 21, 2017. For reasons that are unclear, the case lingered in court for years before Mr. Noviello pleaded guilty to drug trafficking in September 2023.

“I am 48 years of age. I have gone to school up to and including 12th Grade,” he said in court filings at the time, adding, “I offer my plea freely and voluntarily.”

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Mr. Noviello added in his guilty-plea documents that he knew he could face decades in prison – or deportation – after admitting his crimes in court.

Lisa Edelston, one of Mr. Noviello’s friends from their time together at Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Fla., said Mr. Noviello had been working as a cashier at a Dollar Tree in the area before he was taken into ICE custody.

She noticed a few weeks ago that Mr. Noviello hadn’t been at work in a while, so she asked the staff where he was. She said she was told he had been taken into custody, which she found surprising because she hadn’t known his immigration status was precarious. She checked his Facebook page and realized his last post – a prayer for calm and healing – was on May 11.

“This is so sad,” Ms. Edelston told The Globe in a phone interview. “It’s very surprising. I want to know, ‘How did he die?’ ” She described Mr. Noviello as “a good guy,” “shy,” and “very polite.” She also said Mr. Noviello had told her that he had epilepsy.

U.S. immigration lawyer Charles Kuck said the policy that led to Mr. Noviello being picked up by authorities dates back to the 1990s and is known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

“There’s a zero-tolerance policy in the United States for immigrants,” said Mr. Kuck, founding partner at Kuck Baxter in Atlanta and an adjunct professor of law at Georgia’s Emory University. “If you’re not a U.S. citizen and you’re arrested for any drug offence of any kind, you subject yourself to deportation.”

He said ICE has long focused on what he described as “criminal aliens” – people who are not citizens who have criminal records. The Trump administration, he said, has devoted unprecedented resources to finding non-U.S. citizens with drug records so they can be removed from the country.

“There’s nothing unusual about what happened to this person,” he said of Mr. Noviello being taken into custody. “It’s happening a hundred times a day in the United States in June of 2025.”

He described Mr. Noviello’s death as “outrageous” and said questions must be answered by ICE and the specific detention centre where the Canadian had been held. “Hopefully there’ll be a focus from the public, demanding answers.”