How does ICE define and report an 'in-custody' death, and what are the reporting timelines?
Executive summary
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) treats an “in‑custody” death as any death of a person while under its custody — including deaths at facilities and those who die in hospitals while still detained — and requires rapid internal notification, investigation and public reporting; but statutory and agency timelines overlap and sometimes conflict in practice, generating scrutiny from advocates, Congress and independent reviewers [1] [2] [3]. The agency’s written directive and detention standards lay out a 12‑hour internal alert, layered mortality reviews and multiple public disclosure requirements, while external statutes and watchdog reports prescribe varying public‑reporting deadlines and note gaps in completeness [2] [4] [5] [3].
1. What ICE means by an “in‑custody” death
ICE’s public materials and reporting make clear that deaths counted as occurring in custody are those that happen while the person remains under ICE responsibility — this includes deaths that occur in detention centers and deaths that occur after transfer to or treatment at a hospital if the individual is still legally in ICE custody — a practice reflected in mainstream reporting of facility and hospital deaths [2] [1].
2. Immediate internal notifications: the 12‑hour rule
ICE’s detainee‑death policy requires facility-level protocols and mandates that the Field Office Director overseeing the facility report any detainee death within 12 hours to the Assistant Director for Field Operations, Custody Management, the Joint Intake Center (JIC) and ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), initiating agency‑level review and notifications [2] [5].
3. Review process and responsible offices
Following notification, ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and other internal bodies, including the ICE Health Service Corps for medical mortality review, examine circumstances, draft findings about policy adherence, and forward results to ICE senior management and DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, with additional involvement by inspectors general or outside law enforcement when warranted [2] [6] [3].
4. Public reporting timelines: contradictory statutory and agency claims
Public reporting timelines are described differently across sources: ICE states it posts a news release with relevant details within two business days and notifies next of kin, consulates, Congress and stakeholders, while noting congressional language requiring publicization of reports within 90 days (ICE news releases and detainee‑death page) [2] [7]. Independent and legal summaries cite the 2018 DHS Appropriations requirement that ICE publicly report all in‑custody deaths with an initial public report within 30 days and subsequent complete reporting within 60 days of the initial report, a timeline ICE has followed in publishing death reports since 2018 according to peer‑reviewed analysis [3] [8] [9].
5. Disputes, omissions and watchdog concerns
Advocates, researchers and media have pointed to discrepancies between official reports and other records: peer‑reviewed work and watchdog groups identify deaths associated with detention that are not counted by ICE when release occurs shortly before death, and some reporting platforms note differences in how ICE titles and frames news releases, raising questions about completeness and transparency [3] [9] [10]. Congressional and UN actors have demanded additional documentation and independent investigations after high‑profile deaths, underscoring contested narratives between ICE assertions and outside findings [11] [12].
6. What is clear — and what is not — from the available record
What is clear from ICE’s directives and detention standards is a structured internal notification and review regime (including a 12‑hour internal notification requirement and multi‑office mortality reviews) and multiple public notification mechanisms (news releases, notifications to Congress and kin) [2] [5] [13]. What remains less settled in the public record are which statutory timeline (30/60 days cited in DHS appropriations and academic analyses versus agency references to two business days and a 90‑day congressional phrasing) should be treated as binding in every case, and whether ICE’s publicly listed deaths fully capture all deaths connected to detention — matters flagged by researchers and advocacy groups but not uniformly reconciled in agency materials [3] [2] [9].