How do ICE line-of-duty death rates compare to other federal law enforcement agencies in recent years?

1. What the headline national numbers show — fewer officer deaths overall

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s year‑end summary recorded 111 total law enforcement line‑of‑duty deaths in 2025, a 25% drop from 148 in 2024 and the lowest annual total since World War II, a decline reported broadly in the press ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

2. Federal agencies as a group: sparse fatalities reported in 2025

Several outlets citing the NLEOMF note that some recent reports showed no on‑duty fatalities recorded at the nation’s federal and tribal law enforcement agencies for the year, underscoring that most 2025 deaths were state and local officers rather than federal agents ^{[6] [7]}.

3. ICE’s profile in the debate — assaults versus deaths versus custody fatalities

Coverage of ICE often conflates three different measures: assaults on ICE agents, ICE officer line‑of‑duty deaths, and deaths of people in ICE custody; Mother Jones and OPB both emphasize that ICE’s own data do not show an outsized death or assault rate compared with broader law enforcement data, even as DHS and ICE have highlighted jumps in assault counts during selected periods ^{[3] [2]}. In contrast, The Guardian documented a separate and distinct crisis of detainee deaths—32 people died in ICE custody in 2025—which are not officer fatalities but feed public perceptions of danger and agency risk ^[8].

4. Assaults: context matters and absolute numbers are small relative to national totals

Reporting notes that DOJ/FBI figures show roughly 85,000 assaults on law enforcement nationwide in a recent year, and that ICE’s absolute assault counts—while cited as increasing in certain short windows—are small in comparison, producing a much lower per‑officer assault burden than policing writ large, according to outlets that examined ICE data ^{[3] [2]}.

5. Why per‑capita rates are the crucial missing piece

None of the supplied reporting gives a consistent, audited per‑100‑officers fatality or assault rate for ICE compared directly to other specific federal agencies (e.g., FBI, DEA, Border Patrol) over a multi‑year period; outlets instead rely on absolute counts, company walls of honor, and short‑term DHS summaries, so a precise rate comparison cannot be calculated from the available sources ^{[3] [1]}.

6. Alternative interpretations and institutional motives

Political actors and ICE leadership have incentives to present rising assault figures to justify increased protections or tactical deployments; conversely, critics and investigative outlets argue those figures are selective or context‑bound and that ICE’s mortality and assault profile does not substantiate claims of exceptional danger relative to other federal or local law enforcement ^{[3] [2]}. The Guardian’s focus on detainee deaths amplifies a different critique—poor detention conditions—rather than proving higher occupational risk for ICE officers themselves ^[8].

7. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence and what cannot

It is supportable from the available reporting to say that (a) U.S. law enforcement line‑of‑duty deaths fell to historic lows in 2025 ^[1], and (b) independent reviews concluded ICE’s officer death and assault counts are not obviously outsized compared with national law enforcement totals ^{[2] [3]}. It is not possible, based on the supplied sources, to deliver a definitive per‑capita comparison of ICE line‑of‑duty death rates versus those of other federal agencies because the necessary consistent denominators and multi‑year, agency‑specific fatality/roster data are not provided in these reports ^{[3] [1]}.