19-year-old Mexican immigrant dies in ICE custody this week, agency says
(MOORE HAVEN, Fla.) — A 19-year-old Mexican immigrant died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this week, according to a notice sent to lawmakers.
Royer Perez-Jimenez, 19, died March 16 at the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, Florida, according to the notice from ICE that was reviewed by ABC News.
Perez-Jimenez is the 44th person to die in ICE custody during the second Trump administration, according to lawmakers.
“He died of a presumed suicide; however, the official cause of his death remains under investigation,” ICE stated.
In the notice, ICE said the 19-year-old entered the United States from Mexico on Feb. 19, 2022, and was granted voluntary return. On an unknown date, according to ICE, he reentered the U.S.
The notice said Perez-Jimenez was arrested in Florida and charged with felony fraud for impersonation and misdemeanor resisting an officer. ABC News has not verified this claim from the Department of Homeland Security.
“ICE placed an immigration detainer on him that same day, and he was transferred into ICE custody on February 21, 2026,” the agency said in the notice.
ABC News reached out to DHS for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Cal Fire Firefighters do a prescribed burn ahead of oncoming new wildfire called ‘Hughes Fire’ as it tore through northern Los Angeles County, burning over 9,000 acres just hours after it was first reported in California, United States on January 22, 2025. Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The United States experienced nearly two dozen billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2025, causing at least 276 fatalities and costing a total of $115 billion in damages. For the first time, however, the comprehensive analysis detailing the annual impact of these disasters wasn’t released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Discontinued by the Trump administration in 2025, the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster dataset and accompanying website are now hosted and maintained by Climate Central, a non-profit climate science organization. The group hired Adam Smith, the former lead scientist for NOAA’s U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program, to continue his work at Climate Central.
Last year, there were 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, the third-highest annual total on record, behind 2023 and 2024, according to the new report released Thursday by Climate Central. The past year was also the 15th straight year with 10 or more billion-dollar disasters.
The costliest event of 2025 was the devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January, which caused more than $61 billion in damage, according to the analysis. Severe weather events, including severe thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks, accounted for 91% of all billion-dollar disasters last year, the analysis showed.
A record-breaking 28 billion-dollar disasters occurred in 2023, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Extreme weather events, which ranged from severe thunderstorms to hurricanes to wildfires, killed at least 492 people and impacted large swaths of the country.
With data going back to 1980, the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster database is a public record of every significant U.S. weather and climate event that has caused at least $1 billion in damages, adjusted for inflation. Government agencies, insurers, and media outlets frequently rely on the database to report the economic impact of these disasters.
However, last May, NOAA announced that it was retiring the resource, stating there would be no updates beyond calendar year 2024. While all past reports, spanning 1980-2024, will remain accessible on the agency’s website, they will no longer be updated and no new events will be added moving forward. NOAA said that the decision to “retire” the billion-dollar weather and climate disaster product was “in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.”
There have been 426 billion-dollar disasters recorded in the United States since 1980, with a total cost exceeding $3.1 trillion, according to Climate Central. The frequency of billion-dollar disasters has increased dramatically since the early 1980s, driven by rising extreme weather events and the growing number of people, homes and businesses in harm’s way.
While climate change may not be directly responsible for causing these disasters, human-amplified climate change is making naturally occurring events more intense and more impactful.
Stefon Diggs attends the 2025 CFDA Awards at The American Museum of Natural History on November 03, 2025 in New York City. The Hapa Blonde/GC Images
(FOXBOROUGH, Mass.) — New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and assault charges, according to court records.
The complaint was made by a woman who worked as a private chef for the NFL player, according to court documents. During a Dec. 2 dispute over money that she claimed Diggs owed her, he allegedly “smacked her across the face” and “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck,” the complaint says.
“She said that as she tried to pry his arm away, he tightened his grip. At that point, the male threw her onto the bed,” the documents said.
Diggs’ attorney, David Meier, said the NFL player “categorically denies these allegations … because they did not occur.”
“They are unsubstantiated, uncorroborated, and were never investigated — because they did not occur,” Meier said in a statement. “The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction.”
The Patriots are standing behind Diggs, saying in a statement, “Stefon has informed the organization that he categorically denies the allegations.”
“We support Stefon,” the team said. “We will continue to gather information and will cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities and the NFL as necessary.”
The NFL added in statement that it’s “aware of the matter and have been in contact with the club.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Brendan Banfield testifies in his own defense on Jan. 28, 2026, during his double murder trial in Fairfax County, Virginia. (Pool/ABC News)
(FAIRFAX, Va.) — A jury has reached a verdict in the double murder trial of a Virginia man accused of killing his wife and a stranger lured to their home under false pretenses in an elaborate plot to get rid of his spouse so he could be with his au pair, with whom he was having an affair.
Brendan Banfield, 40, is accused of stabbing his wife to death in their home in Fairfax County and fatally shooting a man he allegedly “catfished” on a fetish website. Prosecutors said he pretended to be his wife to lure the man to their home for what was believed to be a consensual fake rape scenario in order to frame that stranger for his wife’s murder.
The jury deliberated nearly nine hours over two days, starting Friday, before reaching a verdict Monday afternoon. The verdict is expected to be read in court at 5 p.m. ET Monday.
The former IRS agent was charged with aggravated murder in 2024 following a monthslong investigation into the deaths of his wife, 37-year-old nurse Christine Banfield, and the man, 39-year-old Joseph Ryan.
Prosecutors accused Brendan Banfield of plotting the murders with the family’s au pair, 25-year-old Juliana Peres Magalhaes, who was initially charged with second-degree murder in connection with the deaths.
Ahead of the trial, Peres Magalhaes pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Under the plea agreement with prosecutors, she will receive time served for testifying against Brendan Banfield.
During closing arguments on Friday, the prosecutor made the case that the murders were premeditated.
“He was in love with Juliana. He can pretend that this was a fling and affair — he’d had them before, no big deal. He was in love with Juliana,” prosecutor Jenna Sands said. “He was afraid of losing her. He needed to get rid of his wife so that they could be together, so that they could marry, so that they could have those babies that he was picking out names for.”
Sands said there was no evidence that Christine Banfield had previously used dating or fetish websites, argued that there were signs that the crime scene had been “manipulated,” and reminded jurors that during the au pair’s testimony, Peres Magalhaes “told us how the plan was crafted and how it played out.”
The defense, meanwhile, pushed back on the catfishing theory, questioned the thoroughness of the investigation and argued that there were conclusions made based on confirmation bias. The attorney, John Carroll, claimed that prosecutors pressured Peres Magalhaes to change her story and that she “secured herself a deal that benefited her.” Carroll also said Brendan Banfield didn’t have to testify, but he did as they sought “to get the truth out there.”
“Is it reasonable, after a six- to eight-week affair, that someone is going to try to get rid of their companion of 19 years, wife of 12 years? Is that reasonable?” Carroll asked the jury. “You heard from my client: He thinks it’s absurd.”
During his testimony, Brendan Banfield called the allegations “absolutely crazy” and said his affair with Peres Magalhaes was just that and nothing more.
He said he came home on Feb. 24, 2023, after the au pair called to alert him about a stranger in the home. He said he went up to his bedroom with his gun drawn and found his wife naked with Ryan and that she called out, “Brendan, he has a knife!”
“I was extremely terrified,” Brendan Banfield told the jury. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more panicked in my life.”
He said he fired his government-issued firearm, striking Ryan in the head, after the man appeared to stab his wife.
Prosecutors said Christine Banfield was stabbed seven times in the neck.
Peres Magalhaes testified that Brendan Banfield expressed his desire to “get rid of” his wife in October 2022, saying, “At first, I thought he was joking.”
She testified that she had helped Brendan Banfield catfish Ryan on the fetish website to lure Ryan to the home.
Peres Magalhaes told the court that Brendan Banfield told her he wanted to marry her and have children with her, and that he didn’t want to divorce his wife because “she would have more money than he would” and because he wanted custody of the couple’s daughter.
Brendan Banfield was additionally charged with using a firearm while committing or attempting to commit murder and child endangerment. The couple’s then-4-year-old daughter was in the house at the time of the killings, in the basement.
“He left her in the basement, knowing that Joe Ryan was upstairs,” Sands said during her closing argument. “He left her in the basement while he shot and killed Joe Ryan. He left her in the basement while he stabbed his wife.”
