The family of the late Costa Rican man who was in ICE’s custody and the sent home in a vegetative state has finally opened up about the tragedy. Randall Alberto Gamboa Esquivel’s family is now demanding answers about how he ended up in that condition.
According to a statement from Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, Gamboa “illegally reentered the U.S.—a felony—in December 2024. El País reports that the Costa Rican national came to the States to find work and was taken into detention in Texas by ICE agents in February.
While held at the Webb County Detention Center, Gamboa stayed in regular contact with his family back home. Gambao called every day, even when he was moved to the Port Isabel facility, his family shared how they completely lost touch with him in June.
Greidy Mata, the man’s sister, shared how, after a while, somebody from the detention center reached out to them and informed them that “he had a health issue, and that’s why he wasn’t answering us.” According to El País’ report, apart from that, the family was given no other information.
All the Costa Ricans are talking about
Randall Gamboa Esquivel, an ice detainee who was recently returned to Costa Rica in ill health
according to CR HOY. All the Ticos are saying he just died. WHAT IS THE STORY?
— Richard Seligman, (@SeligmanRichard) October 27, 2025
The family had no hint about Gamboa’s state until August, when they hired two attorneys to locate him, who unfortunately ended up scamming them. They then hired a third attorney who helped them find him. It was then that Gamboa’s family members found out that he was in a vegetative state.
With the help of an attorney, his family members began the legal process to bring him back to Costa Rica. On 3 September, he was brought back and admitted to a hospital in Pérez Zeledón after initially being briefly treated in San José. On 26 October, Gamboa was pronounced dead.
Ever since, the family has been urging the Costa Rican government to demand answers from the American government. They accused their own government of doing“the bare minimum” to find out what really happened to Gamboa in the States.
Adriana Ureña, the late man’s partner, has accused that the “medical treatment that Randall got in the United States … in my opinion was terrible.” While the US government, on the other hand, claims the exact opposite. A spokesperson for the Trump administration claimed that Gamboa received better healthcare than most immigrants have “received in their entire lives.”
Óscar Arias, Costa Rica’s former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spoken out in support of the family. “Randall Gamboa entered the [U.S.] illegally but in perfect physical condition,” he wrote on X(formerly known as Twitter). He went on to note how “complicit silence” is being maintained by both the Costa Rican and American governments.
