HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED DURING OBAMAS ICE RAIDS

1. The headline number: 56 deaths during Obama-era ICE custody

Advocacy organizations and secondary reporting identify 56 individuals who died while detained by ICE during the Obama administration; the National Immigrant Justice Center’s press release and the joint ACLU–Detention Watch Network–NIJC report both state that 56 people died in ICE custody under Obama ^{[1] [3]}, and that figure has been repeated in other summaries of detention-era mortality ^[2].

2. What "died during Obama’s ICE raids" actually means — custody versus raid

The sources make clear that public counts generally record deaths “in ICE custody” — encompassing deaths at detention centers, field offices, or in hospitals while still under ICE oversight — rather than deaths that occurred specifically during an enforcement raid or at the precise moment of arrest ^{[3] [4]}; therefore, saying “56 died during Obama’s ICE raids” risks conflating distinct categories unless the narrower phrasing is explicitly supported by data.

3. Data sources and the limits of official records

The 56-count draws on ICE records and on FOIA-obtained Detainee Death Review documents used by the ACLU and partners to compile investigative findings ^[3]; independent lists (such as the Wikipedia chronology) also rely on federal records but note reporting gaps and variation in how ICE describes cases ^[4]. The review report highlights that not all deaths were uniformly reviewed or transparently documented, signaling limits in completeness and consistency ^[3].

4. Context, comparisons, and competing narratives

Advocates emphasize systemic neglect and substandard medical care as causes for some custody deaths, which is the central claim of the Fatal Neglect report ^{[1] [3]}; other sources use the same overall death figures to compute relative rates against detention volumes and to compare administrations — for example, one analysis contextualizes 56 deaths alongside hundreds of thousands of detentions during Obama's terms to estimate a low per-detainee death rate ^[2]. Conversely, more recent reporting shows spikes in other years (32 deaths in 2025, per The Guardian), underscoring how mortality metrics shift with enforcement levels and administration policies ^[5].

5. Motives, agendas, and how that shapes counting

The organizations publishing the Fatal Neglect report are advocacy groups (ACLU, DWN, NIJC) whose mandate is to highlight abuses in detention, which influences emphasis on medical neglect and inspection failures ^{[1] [3]}; media outlets and some analyses frame the raw numbers for comparative or political purposes — for instance, to argue that one administration was more or less lethal than another ^{[5] [2]}. Official ICE reporting practices and phrasing (noted in public lists) can downplay language around “death” and complicate independent verification, creating space for advocacy groups to press for transparency ^[4].

6. Bottom line and reporting limits

Based on the reporting provided, the count most directly supported by multiple sources is 56 deaths in ICE custody during the Obama administration ^{[1] [3] [2]}; available sources also show that definitions, reporting practices, and the difference between “death during a raid” versus “death while in custody” matter for interpreting that figure ^{[3] [4]}. The materials supplied do not deliver a separate, verifiable count of people who died specifically at the moment of an ICE raid as distinct from all custody deaths, so that narrower assertion cannot be made from these sources alone.