Immigration and Customs Enforcement saw one of its deadliest years on record in fiscal year 2025, with 21 immigrants dying in the agency’s detention centers across the country.
The rise in deaths comes as President Donald Trump continues to expand his mass deportation campaign, with a surge of federal agents carrying out headline-grabbing raids in cities across the country. The administration is also dramatically increasing immigration authorities’ budgets and expanding available detention facilities, while lowering the recruitment standards for agents. While officials say the measures are needed to control crime and curb illegal immigration, advocates and experts warn that the rapid buildup has strained the system’s capacity to ensure adequate care for detainees.
“While deaths in detention have long been a reality, the indiscriminate approach being wielded by the Trump administration…(has made) this year likely to become the deadliest in recent history,” Mario Russell, executive director of the Center for Migration Studies of New York, said in a statement to NOTUS.
Most recently, ICE announced Friday that Huabing Xie, a Chinese national, died in custody on Sept. 29. The same day, Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, a Mexican national, died of injuries sustained in a Dallas shooting earlier in the month that also killed Norlan Guzman Fuentes of El Salvador.
Three of the 21 deaths in ICE custody in the 2025 fiscal year took place under former President Joe Biden. The rest have been during Trump’s term.
The total number of deaths covers the period from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025. Only fiscal year 2004, with 28 deaths, was higher, according to a tally of public data compiled by NOTUS.
Immigrant rights advocates and experts have warned that if Trump continues to ramp up detention and deportation efforts, it could have dire consequences. In the passage of Trump’s massive spending bill earlier this year, the administration allocated enough money for ICE to triple its detention beds to more than 100,000.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights called for further investigation into the treatment in facilities.
“One too many deaths requires that we deeply and immediately examine how people are treated, what services are or not available to them, and what recourse is available to those family members left behind when their loved one dies while in the custody of one of the most powerful nations in the world,” Executive Director Angelica Salas said in a statement to NOTUS.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.” They said detainees receive medical treatment, including initial screening, full assessments and access to emergency care.
“This is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. All in-custody deaths are tragic, taken seriously, and are thoroughly investigated by law enforcement.”
Of the 21 deaths in the 2025 fiscal year, about half were citizens of Latin American countries, and all but one of those who died were men. The average age of the detainees was 45 years old.
While final causes of death have not been released for a majority of the detainees, at least three died by suicide.
Ninety percent of ICE’s detention centers are run by privately-owned companies that have been criticized for overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions. Immigration lawyers have raised alarms about increased risk for suicide, saying detainees are forced to go without medication, sleep on bare floors and eat rotten food.
I was just notified of ANOTHER death in ICE custody — the 16th since Trump took office.
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) September 23, 2025
The second death TODAY. This is absolutely unacceptable. https://t.co/t7JxczKBUe
Democrats have pressed for more information on deaths in ICE custody and better treatment for those detained. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, called the number of deaths in ICE custody “unacceptable” in a Sept. 23 post.
“This is the direct result of this administration expanding the use of private, for-profit prisons that put their bottom line over people’s health and safety,” Jayapal said in a follow-up post.
Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock submitted a letter to DHS last month requesting more information on detainee deaths in their state.
“ICE is failing to meet its own standards for reporting detainee deaths, thereby hindering Congressional oversight efforts and leaving families in the dark as to their loved ones’ fates,” they wrote.