How do counts of ICE custody deaths compare across administrations and what reporting standards have changed?
Executive summary
The count of deaths in ICE custody has spiked in 2025 to the highest level since 2004, with ICE and multiple news outlets reporting roughly 30–32 deaths for the calendar year as detention populations surged — a rise that critics tie to expanded enforcement and reduced oversight [1] [2] [3]. At the same time, reporting rules and agency policies have changed in recent years — most notably a 2018 congressional requirement to publish detainee-death reports within 90 days and a 2021 ICE policy formalizing notification, review and reporting procedures — but disputes remain about definitions, counting windows and whether administrative practices can mask deaths [4] [5] [6].
1. How the raw counts compare across recent administrations
Public tallies show 2025 as the deadliest year for people in ICE custody since 2004, with media aggregations and ICE notices placing the total at about 30–32 deaths in the calendar year, a near tripling over 2024’s count in some tallies and more deaths than occurred over the course of some prior administrations’ early years [1] [3] [7]. Observers contrast 2025 with the 2020 COVID-19 spike—when deaths were elevated for pandemic reasons—but note that 2025’s rise is occurring alongside a large increase in detainee population and interior enforcement operations rather than a single public-health shock [8] [2] [9]. Congressional offices and advocates point out the pace: representatives said ICE had recorded nearly as many deaths in nine months of 2025 as in entire earlier terms and that the number exceeded every year on record since formal public reporting began in 2018 [10] [6].
2. Why counts vary depending on method and timeframe
Part of the discrepancy across reports stems from how ICE counts and presents fatalities: ICE issues updates via its newsroom and maintains datasets that use fiscal-year and calendar-year windows, and external charting services warn that ICE’s own definitions can yield lower counts than some independent tallies [7]. Journalists and watchdogs also highlight timing and categorization differences — for example, whether deaths that occur shortly after release or in Border Patrol custody are included — which creates variation between government tallies and outside lists [4] [7].
3. What formal reporting standards changed and why it matters
Congress in 2018 required ICE to make public all in-custody death reports within 90 days, a transparency rule embedded in appropriations language that established a baseline for public reporting [4]. In 2021, ICE promulgated a policy titled Notification, Review, and Reporting Requirements for Detainee Deaths to codify notification timelines and review procedures, asserting the agency would notify relevant parties “in a timely, accurate and appropriate manner” [5]. Those changes increased the volume and regularity of official notices, but they did not eliminate disputes over scope, timeliness and narrative framing of releases [5] [1].
4. Gaps, disputes and the role of oversight
Watchdogs and advocates say counting rules and operational practices still leave gaps: critics allege ICE sometimes “releases” detainees before death or places people in health-care settings where deaths are not tracked as ICE custody fatalities, and they point to reduced inspections and staffing strains as factors that can both cause and obscure deaths [4] [3]. ICE counters that its death rate remains low — a figure cited by agency spokespeople — and that standardized reviews and medical intake protocols mitigate risk, but those claims rest on internal data and are contested by legal and advocacy groups documenting preventable-care failures [1] [5] [11].
5. The net effect: higher absolute deaths, clearer rules but continuing ambiguity
The empirical picture as reported by both government notices and independent outlets is straightforward: absolute deaths in 2025 rose sharply and reached a multi-decade high as detention numbers climbed [1] [2] [3]. At the same time, reporting frameworks have been strengthened since 2018 and formalized in 2021, producing more routine public notices; nevertheless, definitional choices, fiscal vs. calendar accounting, potential operational workarounds and reduced onsite inspections leave persistent uncertainty about whether published counts capture all custody-related fatalities and how comparable year-to-year totals truly are [4] [5] [3] [7]. The record therefore shows both an objective rise in reported deaths and an ongoing debate over whether reporting changes and agency practices make the trend easier or harder to interpret.