How many people have died with interaction with ICE during Trump's two terms?
Executive summary
Across the reporting supplied, the most concrete figure is that 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 — the deadliest year for ICE in two decades — and additional deaths tied to ICE activity continued into early 2026; however, the sources do not provide a single, verifiable cumulative total covering both of Donald Trump’s nonconsecutive presidential terms, and official counts are incomplete or inconsistent [1] [2] [3].
1. What the numbers in the reporting actually show: ICE custody deaths in 2025 and early 2026
Multiple investigative outlets and watchdogs documented 32 in‑custody deaths in 2025, a two‑decade high that matched the previous record set in 2004 and which advocates tied to a surge in detentions and overcrowding under the Trump administration [1] [4]; reporting from Reuters, PBS and others then recorded further deaths reported in January 2026, with at least six deaths disclosed in the first weeks of 2026 by ICE and media outlets, and some outlets noting at least four to six such deaths in early 2026 as investigations continued [2] [5] [6].
2. Deaths involving immigration agents and shootings: a separate but related toll
Beyond detainee deaths inside facilities, reporting also documents violent encounters in enforcement operations: watchdog compilations and media investigations counted dozens of shootings by immigration agents since January 2025 and attributed at least eight deaths to those shootings in that period, a tally that is reported separately from in‑custody mortality [7] [4]. These agent‑involved fatalities add to the human cost of enforcement but are tracked differently from “deaths in ICE custody,” complicating any single headline total [4].
3. What this leaves out and why totals diverge: gaps in official tracking and divergent tallies
The sources repeatedly highlight reporting and transparency gaps: ICE and DHS recordkeeping and reporting practices, the release of critically ill detainees before deaths, closed oversight offices and varying NGO tracking methodologies mean public counts understate or lag the full picture; Wikipedia and advocacy groups caution that the government has not consistently tracked detained or missing citizens and that independent trackers—media, NGOs, congressional letters—often produce differing numbers [8] [3] [9]. As a result, aggregated totals that attempt to sum every death “with interaction with ICE” across enforcement operations, shootings, Border Patrol custody and detention centers are not reliably provided in the supplied material.
4. What can be stated with confidence from the supplied reporting
From the supplied sources it is accurate to state: 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 (The Guardian and multiple outlets) and additional detainee deaths were reported in early 2026, with at least four to six deaths disclosed in January 2026 by news organizations and ICE [1] [2] [6]. Separately, compilations of shootings by immigration agents since January 2025 report at least 30 shooting incidents and attribute at least eight deaths to those shootings [7] [4]. Those figures are supported in the supplied reporting but do not, by themselves, constitute a complete two‑term total.
5. Why a single “two‑term” death tally cannot be produced from these sources
The question asks for deaths “with interaction with ICE during Trump’s two terms,” but the supplied reporting focuses overwhelmingly on the second (2025–present) term and on different categories of fatalities (in‑custody deaths, shootings, Border Patrol deaths). The sources do not supply a vetted, consolidated total spanning 2017–2021 and 2025–present, nor do they reconcile overlaps or methodological differences; therefore any single number would require additional, systematic aggregation of DHS records, congressional disclosures, and independent trackers beyond the materials provided [8] [3] [9].
Conclusion
Based on the supplied reporting, the verifiable and headline figure is 32 deaths in ICE custody in 2025, with further detainee deaths and agent‑involved fatalities reported in early 2026 (at least four to six detainee deaths and at least eight deaths from agent shootings in the covered period), but the sources do not permit producing a definitive, fully reconciled cumulative count for both of Trump’s presidential terms; the record is fragmented by reporting gaps, differing trackers and limited government disclosure [1] [2] [7] [3].