How many detainee deaths has ICE officially reported each fiscal year since 2000?
Executive summary
A reliable, continuous public record of ICE-reported in-custody deaths begins with Fiscal Year (FY) 2018, per the DHS appropriations reporting requirement; ICE’s own “Detainee Death Reporting” portal publishes individual death reports from FY2018 forward (but does not provide a neat year-by-year table back to 2000 on that page) [1]. The sources provided permit construction of annual counts from FY2018 through FY2025 using ICE notices and independent compilations, but they do not supply a complete, source-verified tally for FY2000–FY2017 in the materials supplied here; that earlier period cannot be asserted from these documents alone [1].
1. How the official record begins in public: FY2018 and the reporting rule
Congress mandated public reporting of in-custody deaths beginning with Fiscal Year 2018; ICE’s online death-reporting system and related newsroom notices are the agency’s response to that legislative requirement, meaning the “official” sequence that is directly and consistently accessible in one place starts in FY2018 [1].
2. FY2018–FY2020: baseline years captured by ICE and researchers
Independent researchers who compiled ICE postings for FY2018–2020 found a documented set of deaths after the requirement took effect; scholarly reviews use those ICE-posted reports as the baseline for comparisons with later years and pandemic-era increases [2]. The academic review updating FY2021–2023 explicitly relies on ICE’s postings and prior published compilations to quantify deaths during FY2018–2020 [2].
3. FY2021–FY2023: pandemic-era increases and formal analyses
Peer-reviewed/counting efforts covering FY2021–FY2023 documented an increase in deaths during the COVID-19 period and derived death counts and rates using ICE’s published totals and average daily population figures posted by the agency [2]. Those researchers used numbers ICE posted on its site and supplementary ICE reporting to compute death rates per person-year and per 100,000 admissions for FY2021–FY2023 [2].
4. FY2024 and FY2025: contested tallies and multiple public compilations
For FY2024 and FY2025 the record becomes more contested among ICE’s own postings and independent counts: public compilations indicate 11 deaths reported for 2024 (Wikipedia aggregation citing ICE and media reporting) and show a sharp rise in 2025—multiple outlets and compilations record figures ranging from roughly 18 (the count listed on ICE’s detainee-death reporting webpage for FY2025 as cited by congressional and UN commentators) to 30–32 deaths tallied by journalists and NGO aggregators who cross-checked ICE news releases and other sources [3] [4] [5] [6]. Reuters reported “at least 30 people” died in ICE custody in calendar year 2025 and noted ICE’s own posted notices counted deaths that made 2025 a two-decade high [5]. The Guardian and some compilers list up to 31–32 names for 2025 after cross-verification across ICE notices, media, and other records [6] [3].
5. Why year-to-year official counts diverge in public reporting
Discrepancies arise because ICE posts individual reports in multiple places (its death-reporting portal and news releases) and because advocates and journalists track deaths that occurred shortly after release or that appear in newsroom notices before being added to the portal; researchers note ICE’s policy and practice changes (including 2021 guidance) and reporting lags that complicate aggregations [1] [2] [7]. Congressional and NGO summaries therefore sometimes report higher totals than the portal’s locked fiscal-year count at a given moment, and some watchdogs contend ICE’s practice of releasing critically ill detainees can lead to deaths being counted outside the in-custody roster [2] [7] [3].
6. What can be stated with confidence from the provided sources
From the documents provided: ICE established public reporting beginning in FY2018 [1]; peer-reviewed analyses used ICE postings to show rising death rates in FY2021–FY2023 [2]; independent media and NGO compilations record 11 reported deaths in 2024 and a sharp spike in 2025, with published tallies for 2025 ranging from ICE’s portal snapshot (18 listed at one point) up to roughly 30–32 names compiled by Reuters, The Guardian and other trackers [3] [5] [6] [4]. The materials provided do not contain a source-verified, year-by-year table of ICE-reported detainee deaths going back to FY2000, so any complete 2000–2017 counts cannot be asserted based on this packet of sources [1].