How many migrants have died or gone missing in US Border Patrol custody since 2010?
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Executive summary
There is no authoritative public count of how many migrants have died or gone missing specifically while in U.S. Border Patrol custody since 2010; federal oversight reports and advocacy databases document deaths related to Border Patrol activity but also make clear the agency’s records are incomplete and that most migrant deaths occur outside formal custody while attempting to cross the border [1] [2] [3]. Available federal figures show some CBP-related deaths have been reviewed (for example, CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility reviewed 171 CBP-related deaths in FY2022), but that single data point does not translate into a comprehensive tally for 2010–present [2].
1. The question being asked — custody versus border deaths
The precise query seeks deaths or disappearances “in U.S. Border Patrol custody,” a narrow category that excludes the thousands who die crossing the border but never enter formal custody; most public reports, government datasets, and NGO databases focus on migrant deaths and disappearances along the border generally rather than the subset that occurred while a person was detained by Border Patrol, which makes the question harder to answer from available reporting [3] [4] [5].
2. What federal data actually say (and what they don’t)
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) publishes mortality and “CBP-related” death reviews and the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility reported reviewing 171 CBP-related deaths in FY2022, but CBP’s own publications and a 2022 GAO review show gaps in how Border Patrol records deaths and how sectors enter information, meaning federal records undercount or omit incidents—particularly remains first discovered by external entities—so federal data do not provide a reliable, complete custody-specific total since 2010 [2] [1].
3. NGO trackers and academic estimates document scale, not custody
Humanitarian groups, academics, and rights organizations compile databases of migrant deaths and recovered remains that document thousands of deaths along the U.S.–Mexico border—CBP has been reported as recording over 7,000 deaths between FY1998 and FY2020 and other organizations cite totals of more than 8,000 or tens of thousands over longer periods—but these figures refer to deaths during migration or after disappearance, not deaths while physically held by Border Patrol, and NGOs explicitly warn their totals still undercount those never found [3] [4] [6] [7].
4. Oversight findings that complicate a definitive tally
The Government Accountability Office found Border Patrol sectors had not entered all available information on migrant deaths into the agency’s system of record and recommended corrective steps, a finding that undercuts confidence in any single government number for deaths connected to Border Patrol activity and demonstrates why a reliable custody-specific count from 2010 onward is not currently public [1].
5. What can be stated conclusively
It can be stated with confidence that: (a) federal and NGO sources document thousands of migrant deaths and disappearances along the border since 2010, (b) CBP reviews certain “CBP-related” deaths (171 reviewed in FY2022 is one documented instance), and (c) there is no complete, publicly available count of migrants who died or went missing expressly while in Border Patrol custody for the period since 2010 because of recording gaps, definitional ambiguity, and differing NGO methodologies [2] [3] [1] [4].
6. Why the gap matters and where to look next
The absence of a firm custody-specific number matters for accountability and policy; GAO’s critique of Border Patrol recordkeeping, CBP’s own partial reporting of CBP-related reviews, and the parallel NGO databases (which document broader border deaths and recovered remains) together indicate that answering the custody-specific question requires either a full audit by an independent oversight body or consolidated access to CBP, county medical examiner, and NGO data—none of which current public sources fully provide [1] [2] [7].