A study published this Thursday in the medical journal JAMA revealed that the death rate of individuals in custody of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached its highest level in 22 years during the fiscal year 2026, surpassing even the peak recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The investigation analyzed a total of 272 deaths in ICE custody from the fiscal year 2004 until January 19 of last year, and found that between October 2025 and that date, 18 deaths were recorded, which corresponds to an annualized rate of 88.9 people per 100,000 detainees.
That figure surpasses the peak of the COVID-19 era in 2020, when the rate reached 75.6 per 100,000, and contrasts with the 13 per 100,000 recorded in 2023, before the sustained increase that brought the rate to 31.8 in 2024 and to 47.5 in 2025.
Since January 19, another ten people have died in ICE custody, increasing the total to 16 deaths so far this year as of April 14, and at least 47 since the beginning of Trump's second term in January 2025.
While the number of people in immigration detention (the daily ICE population reached a historic high of over 73,400 individuals) increases, overcrowding is worsening, and no improvement is expected. At the end of March, it was revealed that the administration had acquired 24 empty commercial warehouses to convert them into detention centers.
Doctors Michele Heisler, medical director of Physicians for Human Rights and professor at the University of Michigan, and Katherine R. Peeler, medical advisor of the same organization and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, published an editorial accompanying the investigation with damning conclusions.
The document outlines weaknesses in the medical care system, in mental health protection, the review of mortality, and other critical aspects of the detention system.
For example, cardiovascular diseases accounted for one-fifth of deaths, highlighting "long-standing deficiencies in the management of chronic diseases and in the timely escalation of care."
Furthermore, only about 13% of the deaths occurred in hospitals or medical centers, which "suggests that some individuals detained with potentially fatal illnesses may not have received timely access to a higher level of care."
ICE has reduced the information it discloses regarding how deaths occur. Almost 49% of the fatalities were listed as "undetermined or unclassified." This indicates that the authorities at the facilities are not being held accountable, which could obscure preventable causes.
In general, the two doctors pointed out that the system has "long-standing failures" that have worsened due to policies of the current government, which have increased arrests to historical levels, "weakened oversight mechanisms, and deteriorated detention conditions."
Peeler confessed to NBC News that he was struck by how the death rate "has skyrocketed in the last year and a half."
"And unfortunately, we are only in the middle of April of this year," he emphasized.
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