How many deaths has ICE caused(detention, shooting,. etc) under the second trump administration compared to other administrations?
Executive summary
The second Trump administration’s ramped-up immigration enforcement coincided with a sharp rise in deaths tied to ICE custody and agent-involved shootings: 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades and matching the 2004 record [1], while Department of Homeland Security officers fired shots during enforcement or at protesters 16 times since July, with reporting identifying 29 related incidents overall (including 16 shootings) and at least four people killed in those incidents since July [2] [3]. Comparisons with prior administrations are constrained by gaps in agency reporting, but independent reporting and advocacy groups say 2025 exceeded the prior four years combined and was worse even than the COVID spike in 2020 [4] [5].
1. What the raw counts show about ICE custody deaths
Multiple investigations and compilations put the 2025 death toll in ICE custody at 32, a figure described as the highest since 2004 and noted across outlets including The Guardian and an interactive Guardian timeline [1] and cited in analyses by Reuters and PBS that placed 2025 as a two‑decade high [6] [7]. Reporting also documents additional deaths in early 2026 — at least six in January 2026 according to Reuters and PBS — underscoring a recent acceleration in fatalities tied to detention [6] [7].
2. Agent-involved shootings and enforcement encounters
Press reviews using media reports and databases identified dozens of enforcement incidents since July of the administration in which federal immigration agents fired shots or held people at gunpoint, with 16 separate DHS shootings publicly recorded and 29 incidents overall in one compendium [2] [3]. Those officer-involved shootings have produced multiple fatalities — reporting notes at least four people killed and several more injured in incidents since July — and have prompted calls for independent investigations given administration statements repeatedly asserting justification before probes concluded [2] [3].
3. How this compares to previous years and administrations
Reporting is categorical that 2025’s custody deaths matched a long-standing 2004 peak and exceeded death totals in the four years immediately prior, but precise cross-administration tallies are limited in the public record: the Guardian and advocacy groups frame 2025 as the deadliest year in more than two decades and say it topped totals for the recent Biden years combined, while PBS and Reuters note reporting obstacles because ICE declined to provide full historical shooting counts to journalists [1] [4] [7] [6]. The COVID-19 surge in 2020 is repeatedly invoked as a prior high point for detention deaths, but multiple sources state 2025 was deadlier overall [2] [5].
4. Contributing factors and contested narratives
Advocates and watchdogs point to overcrowding from a near‑50% increase in detained population, poor detention conditions, medical neglect, and mental‑health crises as central drivers of the higher custody death toll, claims amplified by the American Immigration Council and other groups [2] [5] [4]. The administration counters that it is targeting criminals and has defended officers’ actions in shootings, but fact‑checking and court or video evidence have in multiple instances contradicted official initial narratives, and reporters note the administration often declares shootings justified before investigations finish [8] [9] [3].
5. Accountability gaps and reporting limits
Independent news organizations, watchdogs and Congress have flagged that DHS and ICE did not supply complete comparative data on agent-involved shootings across administrations, complicating precise historical comparison [7]. Advocacy groups assert systemic erosion of oversight under the current administration; ICE’s refusal to release certain data and the fact that many determinations are made before investigative findings are public create a transparency problem that makes definitive, apples‑to‑apples cross‑administration death counts difficult to produce from the public record alone [3] [4] [7].
Bottom line
Available reporting establishes that 2025 — within the second Trump administration — was the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in more than 20 years (32 deaths), accompanied by an uptick in DHS officer‑involved shootings (16 recorded since July in one compilation and 29 related incidents identified by journalists), and that these totals exceed recent years including the 2020 COVID spike according to multiple outlets and advocacy groups; however, precise, directly comparable totals across administrations are limited by incomplete agency disclosure and differing reporting methodologies, a constraint repeatedly noted by PBS, Reuters and other reporting [1] [2] [7] [6] [3] [4].