How many times have ICE killed innocent people
Executive summary
The available reporting does not support a single, definitive tally that answers “how many times ICE killed innocent people,” because deaths involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fall into different categories—deaths in custody, shootings by agents, and deaths alleged to result from neglect—and sources count and characterize them differently [1] [2] [3]. Public records show a sharp rise in deaths in ICE custody in 2025 and multiple fatal shootings by ICE or Border Patrol agents in recent months, but determining whether victims were “innocent” (a legal and factual judgment) is beyond what the cited reporting definitively establishes [1] [4] [2].
1. What official tallies show: custody deaths surged in 2025
ICE’s own and press-compiled tallies document an unprecedented number of deaths in custody in calendar year 2025 — reporting places the figure at roughly 30–32 people who died while held by ICE that year, the highest total since the mid-2000s [5] [1] [4]. Those documented deaths include people who died in detention centers, field offices, and hospitals while technically under ICE custody, and causes listed in media summaries range from cardiac events, seizures and stroke to tuberculosis and suicide [1].
2. Shootings and on-scene killings by immigration agents
Separate from custody deaths are shootings by ICE or Border Patrol agents in enforcement operations: trackers and news outlets have documented multiple shooting incidents since the enforcement ramp-up, with at least 16 shooting incidents involving federal immigration agents during the recent enforcement surge and several resulting in fatalities—reporting attributes roughly four agent-involved shooting deaths in that period, including high-profile cases like the killing of Renee Nicole Good [2] [6] [4]. These killings are the clearest instances where an ICE agent’s use of lethal force directly resulted in a person’s death, but each case has generated its own contested narratives and investigations [6] [7].
3. Deaths linked to medical neglect, and the near-preventability argument
Advocacy and legal groups frame many custody deaths not as intentional killings but as preventable fatalities arising from inadequate medical care, overcrowding, and neglect; a study cited by the ACLU found that a very high share of examined detention deaths between 2017–2021 “could likely have been prevented” with adequate medical care, reviewing 52 deaths in that period [3]. Non-governmental analyses and immigration-rights groups argue that systemic failures—rather than single acts of lethal intent—account for many detainee deaths, an interpretation supported by case-by-case reporting of medical emergencies that allegedly went untreated [3] [8].
4. Why a precise “how many times ICE killed innocent people” number is elusive
Counting “killed innocent people” requires resolving three disputes that the public record often leaves open: the causal link between ICE action (direct use of force versus custody conditions) and each death, the legal or factual determination of “innocence” (many detainees are in custody for immigration violations, not crimes), and inconsistent reporting standards and delays in official disclosures [9] [10]. Journalists and watchdogs compile lists and charts, but sources often distinguish “died in custody” from “killed by an agent,” and official reports sometimes lag or redact details that would settle questions of culpability [9] [10].
5. Bottom line and the limits of available evidence
The empirical bottom line from cited reportage: in 2025 alone about 30–32 people died in ICE custody (a spike documented by multiple outlets), and separate tracking shows multiple fatal shootings by immigration agents in the same enforcement surge—roughly four confirmed agent-involved shooting deaths reported in recent months—while advocacy studies argue dozens of prior detention deaths were likely preventable rather than the result of explicit lethal intent [1] [5] [2] [3]. The sources do not provide a vetted, authoritative count of “ICE killing innocent people” as a legal category; resolving that question would require completed criminal or civil findings about intent, misconduct, or culpable negligence in each case, which the current public reporting does not uniformly supply [9] [10].