How many people has Ice lost
Executive summary
The question "How many people has Ice lost" can reasonably mean two very different things: deaths in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, or the planet’s loss of ice mass. Reporting shows that in 2025 ICE custody deaths reached at least 32 people, while the Earth has lost roughly 28 trillion tonnes of ice since the mid‑1990s and continues to shed hundreds of billions of tonnes annually [1][2][3][4].
1. What the question could mean — clarifying the ambiguity
Language collapses different realities: "Ice" capitalized often refers to the federal immigration agency (ICE), whereas lower‑case "ice" commonly denotes frozen water and glaciers; both are in the news but measure loss very differently, one by human fatalities and the other by mass in tonnes and sea‑level rise [1][3].
2. If the question refers to ICE (the agency): recent human losses in custody
Multiple major outlets and compiled lists report that 2025 was the deadliest year in two decades for people held in ICE custody, with reporting citing 32 detainee deaths during the year, a spike that coincided with a large increase in arrests and detentions under the Trump administration [1][2]. Earlier in 2025 some outlets tracked at least 20 deaths before later tallies rose as more cases and reporting emerged, demonstrating how year‑end totals can change as investigations and public records are updated [5].
3. If the question refers to global ice loss: trillions of tonnes gone
Scientists and agencies have quantified planetary ice loss in mass units: a widely cited satellite‑based synthesis found the world lost about 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017, and more recent assessments show ice losses accelerating, with Antarctica’s losses tripling since 2012 and glaciers losing on the order of 273 billion tonnes per year in the 2000s–2020s window [6][7][8]. Those losses translate into measurable sea‑level rise—studies estimated roughly 35 millimetres of sea‑level rise from 1994–2017 tied to these ice losses [6].
4. Why counts and figures differ across sources
Discrepancies arise for both meanings: detainee death totals depend on agency reporting, watchdog compilations and litigation; critics say ICE sometimes avoids counting deaths by "releasing" detainees shortly before death or by using euphemistic language in reports, and the ACLU has sued for more disclosure, which means independent tallies (like Wikipedia lists or NGO counts) can differ from official releases [9]. For ice mass, differences come from methodological choices—satellite missions, time windows, and which ice reservoirs (glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, ice shelves) are included—so one study's "28 trillion tonnes since the mid‑1990s" and another's per‑year glacier loss figures complement rather than contradict one another [3][4].
5. Implications and contested narratives
Both losses carry political stakes. The human toll in ICE custody has prompted outrage, calls for transparency, and protests that have inspired cultural responses from public figures; critics argue policy and staffing changes are driving overcrowding and medical care failures, while ICE disputes some allegations and provides preliminary medical causes in individual cases [5][2]. Climate‑science figures are also politicized—accelerating ice loss is a clear marker of warming that feeds sea‑level and displacement risks, yet the scale and urgency are sometimes downplayed or weaponized in policy debates [7][4].
6. Limits of the available reporting
Available sources establish key numbers—32 detainee deaths reported for 2025 and about 28 trillion tonnes of ice lost since the mid‑1990s—but gaps remain: ICE’s own reporting practices and litigation suggest some deaths may be undercounted or documented in ways that obscure details, and scientific estimates continue to be refined as satellite records lengthen and models improve [9][6]. Those caveats mean the reported totals are authoritative for now but subject to revision as oversight, lawsuits, and new science produce more information [9][3].