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How many federal immigration officers (ICE/CBP/Border Patrol) have died in cartel-related attacks since 2020?
Executive summary
Available reporting in the provided sources identifies a small number of confirmed fatalities of federal immigration personnel in cartel-linked attacks since 2020, but comprehensive tallies are not available: the most prominent case documented here is the 2011 ambush and killing of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata (prior to 2020) for which cartel members were prosecuted [1] [2] [3]. Current sources emphasize recent DHS warnings about cartel “bounty” campaigns targeting ICE/CBP personnel (2025 reporting), but they do not provide a clear, sourced count of cartel-related deaths of ICE/CBP/Border Patrol officers since 2020 [4] [5].
1. What the records and trackers say — limited, inconsistent death data
Federal and advocacy databases show CBP tracks “CBP-related deaths” and maintains memorials for officers who died in the line of duty, but official reporting on causes and links to cartels is inconsistent. The Government Accountability Office previously found CBP “does not have reliable information on deaths and has not consistently reported death-related information to Congress,” and civil-society trackers (ACLU, Southern Border Communities Coalition) document many in-custody and use-of-force deaths but focus on migrant fatalities rather than deaths of federal officers in cartel attacks [6] [7] [8]. CBP’s OPR reviews and public statistics list hundreds of CBP-related deaths reviewed in a year (e.g., 171 in FY2022) but do not break out cartel-related officer deaths in the public summaries available here [9] [10].
2. High-profile historical prosecution: Jaime Zapata — not within 2020–present
The clearest cartel-linked killing of a U.S. federal immigration agent in the sources is the ambush that killed ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata; two cartel members were later convicted and sentenced (reported in ICE releases) [1] [2]. That attack occurred well before 2020 — sources here place it in 2011 — and while it demonstrates that cartel violence has targeted U.S. immigration personnel, it does not answer the “since 2020” question [3].
3. Recent DHS claims about cartel bounties — threat but not a death tally
Multiple 2025 DHS releases and news outlets report that U.S. officials obtained intelligence about cartel-originated “tiered” bounties and other threats aimed at ICE and CBP personnel in U.S. cities and at the border (e.g., payouts from information/doxxing up to alleged assassination bounties) [4] [5] [11]. Those items document a rising threat environment and arrests tied to alleged bounties, but these sources do not enumerate confirmed cartel-caused fatalities of federal immigration officers since 2020; the coverage centers on intelligence, alleged plots, and prosecutions rather than a compiled death count [4] [5].
4. Cases of violence and ambushes referenced but not counted by year
The sources include reporting of ambushes, attacks, and prosecutions involving cartels and law enforcement (including federal agents and Mexican counterparts), and they cite specific incidents in Mexico and at the border that killed Mexican immigration or police officers [12]. But among the provided U.S.-federal sources and trackers, there is no consolidated, source-cited number of ICE/CBP/Border Patrol deaths attributable to cartel attacks from 2020 onward. Where prosecutions exist (e.g., Zapata case), they are detailed, but those precede 2020 [1] [2].
5. Reasons counts are hard to establish — reporting gaps and differing definitions
The absence of a clear number in the provided material reflects three reporting gaps documented in these sources: (a) CBP’s historical inconsistency in reporting and classifying deaths to Congress and the public [6]; (b) external trackers (ACLU, SBCC) primarily monitor migrant fatalities and officer uses of force, not necessarily cartel attacks on officers [7] [6]; and (c) recent DHS reporting focuses on intelligence about threats and alleged bounties rather than producing a retrospective casualty list of federal officers killed by cartels since a specified date [4] [5].
6. What can be reliably stated from these sources
Based solely on the documents provided: (a) at least one well-documented cartel killing of a U.S. ICE agent exists in the record (Jaime Zapata), but it predates 2020 and therefore does not count toward “since 2020” [1] [2] [3]; (b) DHS and multiple news outlets in 2025 publicly warned of cartel bounties and coordinated threats against ICE/CBP personnel, including arrests connected to alleged bounty plots, but those sources do not give a sourced numerical total of officer deaths since 2020 [4] [5] [11]. Available sources do not mention a definitive, sourced count of federal immigration officers killed by cartel-related attacks from 2020 to the present (not found in current reporting).
7. How to get a definitive answer
To produce a definitive, sourced count you would need either: (a) a DHS, DOJ, or CBP/ICE official release explicitly listing cartel-related officer deaths by date and agency; or (b) an independent database or investigation that documents each such incident and ties it to cartel perpetrators. Those authoritative data points are not present in the set of documents you provided (available sources do not mention such a list) [9] [6].
If you want, I can draft the specific FOIA/records request language or identify which federal offices and offices of inspector general to contact for an authoritative, up-to-date count.