How many deaths in ICE custody were recorded in 2025 and what were the causes?
Executive summary
ICE custody deaths in calendar year 2025 reached at least 32 people, the highest annual total in roughly two decades according to multiple news investigations and agency tallies [1] [2] [3]. Causes reported by authorities and researchers span acute medical events, chronic disease complications, suspected suicides, suspected withdrawal or overdose-related events, and at least one case later described by a medical examiner as likely a homicide — while many individual causes remain under investigation or are disputed by families and advocates [2] [4] [5].
1. The headline number: 32 deaths, with some tallies showing slight variation
Major outlets and watchdogs reported 32 deaths in ICE custody during 2025, characterizing the year as the deadliest for the agency since the early 2000s [1] [2] [3]; some compilations and databases list 31 or note minor discrepancies depending on whether deaths tied to enforcement actions outside formal custody are included, reflecting differences in definitions and public disclosures [6] [7].
2. What the reported causes look like: a long list, often preliminary or contested
ICE press notices and reporting attribute deaths to a mix of medical emergencies and natural causes — for example, ICE said two of four December deaths followed medical emergencies and two were believed to be natural causes — and individual preliminary causes cited by the agency include stroke, seizures, heart-related issues and liver failure “complicated by alcoholism” in at least one case [2] [1] [4]. Independent reporting and later findings add other categories: respiratory failure, tuberculosis, suicide, and severe drug-withdrawal symptoms linked to at least one January 2026 death that continued a worrying pattern from 2025 [8] [9] [5].
3. Disputes, investigations and a contested narrative about preventability
Families, lawyers and rights groups have frequently disputed ICE’s preliminary explanations, alleging neglect, denial of timely care, or inadequate screening for medical fitness on arrival; a 2024 study cited by advocates found a high share of earlier ICE custody deaths were preventable or possibly preventable, a line of argument activists used to press for accountability after the 2025 surge [5] [8]. Concurrently, some medical examiners produced findings at odds with agency statements — for instance, an El Paso medical examiner announced that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos was likely a homicide — underscoring that official cause-of-death tallies remain provisional in many cases [5].
4. Systemic context: more people detained, fewer inspections, and political pressure
Reporting links the spike in deaths to a rapid expansion of detention under the Trump administration’s enforcement push — detainee populations soared in 2025 while routine oversight inspections reportedly plummeted, a convergence that watchdogs called an “invitation” to more lethal outcomes in custody [3]. ICE’s public posture is defensive: the agency issued statements asserting commitment to medical care and humane conditions even while local advocates, legislators and watchdogs called for fuller transparency and independent probes [3] [4].
5. What can’t be definitively answered from public reporting
Open-source reporting provides the aggregate count (roughly 32) and a categorized list of reported or alleged causes — seizures, heart failure, stroke, respiratory failure, tuberculosis, suicide, overdose/withdrawal-related events, liver failure and at least one homicide finding — but final determinations remain incomplete for multiple individual deaths and vary between ICE notices, family statements, medical examiners and later investigations [1] [2] [4] [5] [9]. Where sources disagree or list causes as “preliminary” or “under investigation,” this account records those disputes rather than asserting a single, settled cause for each fatality [1] [2].