How many people were killed under trump by ICE
Executive summary
The most defensible, widely reported figure for deaths in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody during the first year of President Trump’s second term is 32 people who died in 2025 — the highest total in more than two decades, according to multiple news organizations tracking ICE-reported figures and investigative reporting [1] [2] [3]. That tally refers to people who died while detained or otherwise under ICE custody; additional lethal encounters involving immigration agents (shootings) and early-2026 deaths add complexity and raise the total number of lives lost connected to immigration enforcement under the administration beyond that single-year custody count [4] [2].
1. What the 32 figure means and where it comes from
The headline number — 32 deaths in ICE custody in 2025 — comes from investigative reporting and aggregation of ICE’s own disclosures and facility reporting, which found people who died inside detention centers, in field offices, or after transfer to hospitals while still under ICE control; The Guardian and other outlets reported that 32 deaths matched the agency’s previous high from 2004 [1] [2]. Reuters, reporting on the broader surge, described at least 30 deaths in 2025 and noted the agency was detaining tens of thousands more people as the administration expanded enforcement, which advocates link causally to the rising death toll [3] [4].
2. What’s included — and what isn’t — in that custody count
The 32-person figure is specific to deaths “in custody” — people detained or under ICE medical/hospital control when they died — and does not automatically include separate lethal uses of force by agents in the field, deportation-related deaths outside custody, or people who died after release but with contested links to enforcement actions [1] [4] [2]. Reporting also documents several deaths in the first days of 2026 — four in the first 10 days — showing the crisis continued into the new year and indicating that year-to-date totals can shift rapidly as investigations and agency disclosures proceed [4] [5].
3. Conflicting accounts, investigations, and political framing
ICE and DHS pushed back on characterizations of systemic decline, with agency spokespeople insisting medical care is provided and arguing that death rates remain low in context; DHS and ICE also said many cases are under investigation [1]. Advocacy groups, legal monitors, and nongovernmental trackers counter that overcrowding, medical neglect, cuts to oversight, and deliberate policy choices have produced avoidable fatalities — claims advanced by the American Immigration Council, Detention Watch Network and others who note 2025 deaths outpaced recent years and that deaths rose as detention expanded [6] [7] [8]. Congressional inquiries and calls from senators further underscore political dispute and delayed reporting concerns [9].
4. Beyond the custody tally: shootings and other lethal encounters
Separate from the custody death count, reporting compiled by The Guardian, Reuters and others documented multiple incidents where immigration agents shot or otherwise used lethal force in enforcement operations; The Guardian tracked shootings and reported that immigration agents had been involved in fatal shootings and that four people had been killed by agents in that reporting window, adding to the human toll connected to the administration’s intensified operations [2] [4]. Those cases are recorded and prosecuted under different legal frameworks than in-custody deaths and are tallied by different trackers, meaning there is no single, universally accepted “total killed by ICE” number that collapses custody deaths, shootings, and other enforcement-associated deaths into one figure in the public record [2] [4].
5. Limits of the public record and the honest answer
Available reporting supports a clear, narrow answer: 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, plus at least several additional custody deaths in early 2026 as reported by news outlets [1] [4]. If the question intends to encompass all deaths directly or indirectly caused by ICE actions — including shootings by agents, deaths after release tied to enforcement, or deportation-related fatalities — the sources do not provide a consolidated, provable total; media outlets and advocacy groups report additional, distinct fatalities but differ in inclusion criteria and completeness [2] [6]. The record is contested, under investigation in many cases, and politically charged, and both agency statements and watchdog reports should be read as partial and situated within opposing agendas [1] [7].