How many of the 32 deaths in ICE custody in 2025 were ruled homicides or caused by medical neglect?
Executive summary
Of the 32 people reported to have died in ICE custody in 2025, one death has been formally ruled a homicide by a medical examiner — the case of Geraldo Lunas Campos — while there is no authoritative, publicly released count of how many deaths were officially attributed to medical neglect; advocates, journalists and lawmakers have alleged multiple deaths involved neglect but official determinations remain incomplete or unpublished [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. One confirmed homicide but reporting varies on totals
County and national outlets report that the El Paso County medical examiner’s autopsy classified the Jan. 3 death of Cuban detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos as a homicide due to asphyxia, a finding widely covered by NPR and PBS and noted by Reuters, establishing at least one homicide within the 2025 tally [1] [2] [5]. The broader counts of in‑custody deaths are themselves inconsistent across sources — The Guardian and other outlets list 32 deaths in 2025 while some government pages or compilations show different fiscal‑year figures — which complicates cross‑checking determinations beyond the Lunas Campos case [3] [6] [7].
2. Allegations of medical neglect are widespread but not the same as formal rulings
Families, legal representatives and human‑rights groups have repeatedly alleged that several 2025 deaths resulted from medical neglect or delayed care — examples and pattern claims are documented in reporting on multiple individual deaths and in congressional correspondence — but those allegations are not the same as medical‑examiner determinations and, to date, the public record does not show a consolidated official count of deaths legally ruled as caused by medical neglect in 2025 [3] [8] [9]. Independent watchdogs point to systemic failures — for instance, Physicians for Human Rights found that 95 percent of a prior sample of ICE deaths from 2017–2021 were preventable or possibly preventable with appropriate care — which bolsters the claim that neglect likely contributed to many deaths, but that study does not convert to an official, case‑by‑case ruling for 2025 [4].
3. Why there is no clean official number for “medical‑neglect” deaths in 2025
ICE and DHS produce individual detainee death reports irregularly and their online death‑count pages have gaps and fiscal‑year mismatches, while local medical examiners operate independently and only some autopsy findings have been released publicly; as a result, national tallies compiled by journalists or advocacy groups include allegations, agency statements and medical‑examiner findings mixed together, making it impossible from available reporting to produce a definitive, authoritative count of how many of the 32 were legally ruled to have died from medical neglect [10] [6] [3].
4. Investigations, shifting official accounts, and competing narratives
Several high‑profile cases in late 2025 and early 2026 show shifting government explanations and independent findings — in the Lunas Campos case DHS initially described medical distress and later amended accounts, while the medical examiner’s autopsy found asphyxia consistent with restraint, illustrating how local autopsies can contradict agency narrative and why independent investigations are central to identifying homicides or neglect [5] [1] [2]. Advocacy outlets and some members of Congress are urging independent probes and point to policy changes and operational decisions in 2025 (e.g., changes to medical contracting and rapid population increases) as contextual drivers of higher mortality, but those systemic critiques are not the same as formal cause‑of‑death rulings [11] [9].
5. Bottom line: one homicide; medical‑neglect rulings not publicly enumerated
The only death among the 32 explicitly reported in these sources as ruled a homicide by a medical examiner is that of Geraldo Lunas Campos [1] [2]. There is credible and widespread reporting that multiple 2025 deaths involved alleged medical neglect and that prior reviews found most ICE deaths could have been preventable with proper care, but the sources do not supply an official, consolidated count of how many of the 32 were formally ruled by medical examiners to have died from medical neglect or were legally classified as such [4] [3] [8]. Where public autopsy or coroner findings exist they must be examined case‑by‑case; absent a comprehensive release from medical examiners or DHS consolidating those determinations, the precise number beyond the confirmed homicide cannot be established from the available reporting [6] [10].