How many ICE custody deaths were recorded by year and by citizenship from 2009–2017 (official ICE/DHS data)?
Executive summary
Official ICE/DHS records do exist that enumerate deaths in ICE custody through mid‑2017 and include nationality/citizenship fields, but the specific year‑by‑year counts broken down by citizenship for 2009–2017 are not fully reproduced in the reporting provided here; the primary ICE compilation covering 10/01/2003–06/05/2017 is available from ICE and is the authoritative source to extract those counts [1] [2]. This analysis explains what the public sources in the dossier show, where the gaps are, and how to obtain the exact table the user requests.
1. What the official public record is and where the data lives
ICE publishes a “List of Deaths in ICE Custody” file that covers detainee deaths from October 1, 2003 through June 5, 2017; that ICE FOIA/official compilation is cited directly in the reporting supplied and is the primary document that contains individual records including dates and nationalities [1]. ICE’s detainee‑death reporting policy and its newsroom death notices are the mechanisms the agency uses to disclose individual deaths and to document notifications and reviews; those pages describe procedures and that ICE makes death reports public, but do not themselves present an aggregated 2009–2017 cross‑tabulation by year and citizenship in the snippets provided [2].
2. What the secondary sources say about counts and trends (but not the requested table)
Journalists, advocates and researchers have used ICE’s published lists to compile tallies and analyses: Wikipedia’s chronological list of ICE detention deaths relies mainly on federal records and the DHS reporting requirement to publish death reports [3], academic and health‑policy researchers have extracted data from ICE death reports to produce analyses and death‑rate calculations [4], and outlets such as Statista and Guardian cite ICE tallies when reporting trends [5] [6]. These sources confirm that the underlying ICE dataset exists and has been mined for trends, but the snippets provided do not include a completed year‑by‑year by‑citizenship table for 2009–2017 [3] [4] [5] [6].
3. Why the exact 2009–2017 year × citizenship counts cannot be asserted from the supplied material
The one directly relevant ICE file cited in the sourcing (the FOIA PDF covering 2003–06/05/2017) is referenced [1] but its contents were not reproduced in the reporting snippets supplied here; therefore this analysis cannot reliably assert the numeric counts by year and citizenship for 2009–2017 without consulting that ICE PDF or ICE’s death‑reporting pages directly [1] [2]. Stating specific numbers would require extracting and tabulating the nationality/citizenship field for each death in 2009–2017 from that ICE list; the supplied secondary reporting confirms the existence of source data but does not include the requested aggregated table [3] [1].
4. How to obtain the exact numbers and what to watch for when using them
To produce the precise year‑by‑year counts by citizenship for 2009–2017, one must download and parse the ICE “List of Deaths in ICE Custody” (10/01/2003–06/05/2017) and count records by calendar year and by the citizenship/nationality field; that FOIA/ICE file is explicitly cited as the data source in the materials provided [1]. When using that ICE file, be aware that different trackers (advocacy groups, academic papers, media) sometimes apply different inclusion rules (for example, whether to count people who were released from custody shortly before death, Border Patrol deaths, or deaths occurring during enforcement operations) — Wikipedia and policy groups note these definitional differences and that ICE’s own newsroom reporting may use different language and framing [3] [4].
5. Competing narratives, transparency questions and caveats
Advocates and researchers argue reported counts understate deaths tied to ICE custody because some people are released in critical condition and die shortly thereafter or because Border Patrol deaths are tracked separately; investigative reports and academic reviews have concluded that ICE’s reported deaths are a partial record and have documented preventability concerns, while ICE asserts it follows notification and reporting standards [4] [2] [7]. The sources in the dossier reflect these competing views: ICE’s procedural pages document reporting responsibilities [2] while academic and nonprofit investigations highlight additional cases and methodological choices that can change totals [4] [7].
6. Bottom line for the question asked
The authoritative counts required exist in ICE’s publicly posted list (10/01/2003–06/05/2017) and can be tabulated to yield year‑by‑year and citizenship‑by‑year totals for 2009–2017 [1]; however, the reporting provided here does not include that extracted table, so this analysis cannot responsibly print the numeric breakdown without consulting the ICE FOIA PDF itself [1]. For an exact answer, retrieve the ICE PDF cited [1] and either extract the nationality field into a spreadsheet or request a pre‑tabulated extraction from ICE or a public‑interest researcher who has already compiled the dataset.