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An analysis published on Wednesday by Reuters revealed that the mortality rate in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers has more than doubled since Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, with 50 individuals dying in immigration custody during that period.
Between 2009 and 2024, the historical death rate in ICE facilities was one for every 3,848 detainees. Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, that figure surged to one death for every 1,630 detainees, according to data from the Deportation Data Project obtained through public records and processed by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization focused on reducing incarceration rates.
Of the 50 recorded deaths, 21 people were found already deceased or unresponsive before receiving any type of medical attention.
Another 10 cases were attributed to suicides, and 16 more to heart attacks or other cardiovascular complications, which experts interpret as a sign of failures in initial health assessments and in the management of chronic diseases.
Jay Bas, a physician at the University of California in San Francisco and a researcher on deaths in ICE detention, characterized the suicides and cases of individuals found unresponsive as "particularly alarming," as they may indicate issues with physical and mental health oversight in those facilities.
Three experts who reviewed ICE records and autopsies expressed concern about the rising mortality rate, although they clarified that the causes of the deaths can be multiple and do not always imply negligence or mistreatment. However, they noted that the lack of detail in death reports under the Trump administration complicates identifying the reasons behind the increase.
The structural context exacerbates the situation: the population of detainees grew from about 40,000 people at the beginning of the mandate to approximately 57,000 by early June 2026, with facilities operating well above their capacity.
To absorb that volume, the administration converted 24 empty commercial warehouses into detention centers, a measure that has been widely criticized.
The use of force in detention centers increased by 37% in 2025 compared to 2024, with 780 incidents and 1,330 people affected.
This data adds to that of a study published in April in the medical journal JAMA, which analyzed 272 deaths in ICE custody from fiscal year 2004 until January 19 of this year.
That report documented that the mortality rate increased from 13 deaths per 100,000 detainees in 2023 to 88.9 in fiscal year 2026, the highest level in 22 years and surpassing the peak recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was 75.6 in 2020.
Among the most serious cases is that of the Cuban Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55 years old, who passed away on January 3rd at the Camp East Montana facility in Texas. The coroner ruled the death a homicide by asphyxiation, contradicting the initial statement from ICE, which led to a FBI investigation and a class-action lawsuit from the ACLU citing at least three deaths within 44 days at that same facility.
Amid the controversy, Todd Lyons, the interim director of ICE, resigned on April 17.
On June 5, ICE also announced that it will stop reporting the deaths of individuals recently released from its custody, eliminating the obligation—initiated during the Biden administration—to investigate and notify about deaths occurring within 30 days after release, a decision that experts view as a further step toward opacity in the immigration detention system.
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