How many people were killed by ICE agents during the Obama and Biden administrations?
Executive summary
The reporting supplied does not offer a single, authoritative tally of people who were explicitly killed by ICE agents’ use of force during the Obama or Biden administrations; instead, the available sources distinguish between deaths in ICE custody (which include medical deaths and neglect) and shootings or fatal use-of-force incidents, and only the former is quantified for the Obama era in the materials provided (56 deaths in custody) [1] [2]. There is no clear, sourced total in the provided documents that counts how many people were killed by ICE agents’ actions specifically during either the Obama or Biden administrations, so any numeric claim beyond what these sources state would go beyond this reporting.
1. What the numbers in the documents actually represent
A report cited by immigrant-rights groups and covered in the supplied material states that 56 individuals died while in ICE custody during the Obama administration; that figure appears in an ACLU/Detention Watch Network/National Immigrant Justice Center release and in contemporary reporting summarizing deaths in detention during Obama years [1] [2]. Those 56 deaths are categorized as deaths in custody and are not necessarily equivalent to people “killed by ICE agents” through shootings or other lethal force—many involve inadequate medical care, neglect, or other custodial failures rather than an agent firing a weapon [3] [1].
2. What the sources say about shootings and use of lethal force
Investigative reporting by The Trace documents multiple fatal shootings involving ICE agents and details specific incidents (for example, a February 23, 2018 shooting) but that reporting does not present a comprehensive, administration-by-administration tally of fatal use-of-force incidents in the supplied excerpts [4]. Other materials in the package focus on more recent spikes in shootings and custody deaths under the Trump administration and its aftermath (notably 2025), but those items do not retroactively enumerate lethal-force deaths for Obama or Biden [5] [6].
3. Limits on attributing “killed by ICE agents” vs. “died in ICE custody”
The sources consistently distinguish custody deaths from use-of-force killings: detention advocacy groups and watchdog reports emphasize systemic neglect and medical-care failures as drivers of many deaths in custody, while investigative pieces document discrete shootings by agents [3] [4]. Therefore, the 56 figure cited for Obama cannot be read as 56 people shot or otherwise directly killed by ICE agents; it is a broader count of deaths occurring under ICE’s custody responsibilities [1] [2].
4. What is missing for a definitive answer and why it matters
None of the supplied sources offers a definitive, verified count of people killed specifically by ICE agents during the Obama or Biden presidencies; the materials instead provide partial tallies in categories (custody deaths) and episodic reporting of shootings [1] [4]. Without access to an authoritative DOJ/DHS breakdown of use-of-force fatalities by administration or a consolidated public database in the provided reporting, a precise number for “killed by ICE agents” during either administration cannot be derived from these sources alone.
5. Context, alternative perspectives and possible agendas
Advocacy groups and investigative outlets frame the problem differently: watchdogs emphasize detention deaths and institutional neglect to argue for accountability and reform [3] [1], while other reporting highlights rare but explosive shootings to underscore failures in oversight or to press for criminal or civil investigations [4]. Political actors sometimes conflate custody deaths with lethal force to score policy points; that conflation is visible in partisan coverage and in how recent high-profile shootings have been leveraged by opponents of current enforcement policies [7] [5]. The Trace and advocacy reports carry implicit reformist agendas focused on accountability, while some mainstream outlets have historically presented ICE enforcement in more neutral or operational terms [4] [7].
Exact, sourced answers: the materials provide one clear, attributable figure—56 people died in ICE custody during the Obama administration (2009–2017) [1] [2]—but they do not provide a sourced, administration-level count of how many people were killed by ICE agents’ use of force during either the Obama or Biden presidencies; that precise figure cannot be concluded from the supplied reporting [4] [1].