How many people died under obama first and second term ice operations
Executive summary
The most consistent figure in the reporting reviewed is that 56 people died in ICE custody over the course of the Obama administration (2009–2017), a total cited by advocacy groups and multiple reports [1] [2]. That number, however, sits alongside other government and NGO counts covering different time windows and definitions—illustrating that death tallies vary with scope, reporting practices and whether Border Patrol or hospital deaths while “in custody” are included [3] [4].
1. The headline number: 56 deaths during 2009–2017
Several reputable advocacy organizations and summaries of ICE records report 56 individuals dying while in ICE custody during the Obama years; this figure appears in an ACLU/Detention Watch Network/National Immigrant Justice Center release and in contemporary summaries of detention mortality, and is quoted in mainstream summaries comparing administrations [2] [1]. The 56‑death figure is the clearest direct answer available in the sampled reporting to the question of how many people died under ICE custody across Obama’s first and second terms [1] [2].
2. Why counts differ: partial reviews and different time windows
Other sources make narrower or differently scoped counts: Human Rights Watch noted that ICE’s 2016 death reviews covered 18 of 31 deaths acknowledged since May 2012, underscoring that ICE’s public reviews and NGO tallies often cover different spans and subsets of deaths [3]. Wikipedia’s chronological list and ICE’s own archives can produce alternate totals depending on whether Border Patrol deaths, short‑term custody deaths, or post‑transfer hospital deaths remain included or excluded, which is why researchers see variant figures in different reports [4] [5].
3. What “died in custody” means—and what that obscures
The phrase “died in ICE custody” can include people who were found unresponsive in detention cells, those who died after transfer to hospital care while still under ICE authority, and people who took their own lives or succumbed to medical conditions such as heart failure, stroke or tuberculosis [6]. Reports cited by NGOs and press accounts repeatedly emphasize causes ranging from medical crises to alleged neglect, and note that facility oversight and medical care shortcomings were implicated in multiple cases—points NGOs like ACLU and Detention Watch Network highlighted when reporting the 56‑death total [7] [2].
4. Limits of public data and competing narratives
Official ICE disclosure practices and the historical absence of a single, consistently updated public dataset create ambiguity: ICE did not always publish comprehensive detention totals or full death‑review reports in a uniform way, which leaves room for advocacy groups, journalists and researchers to compile different counts from FOIA releases, death reviews and congressional disclosures [1] [3]. This reporting environment also feeds political narratives that compare administrations—some outlets emphasize absolute death counts while others stress death rates per detainee, and both approaches can be skewed by incomplete denominator data and changes in enforcement volume [1] [8].
5. Bottom line with caveats
The best-supported direct answer from the reviewed reporting is that 56 people died in ICE custody during the Obama administration (2009–2017), but that figure must be read with caveats: other sources track shorter windows (for example, 31 deaths since May 2012 in ICE’s own death reviews, with 18 reviewed in detail by ICE in 2016), and different datasets may or may not include Border Patrol custody or hospital transfers [2] [3] [4]. The result is a defensible headline number—56 deaths—backed by NGO and press reporting, while acknowledging persistent gaps and methodological differences in public records [1] [2] [3].