Where can I download ICE’s Detainee Death Reporting archive and how is it organized?
Executive summary (2–3 sentences)
ICE publishes a central Detainee Death Reporting page on its public website where individual death reports and related press releases are posted, and the agency says it will make full reviews public within 90 days in accordance with policy and appropriations requirements [1] [2]. Historical aggregations and bulk downloads of related ICE-produced enforcement data have been republished by third parties (notably the Deportation Data Project), but a single official “archive ZIP” link is not provided on the ICE page according to available reporting [3] [1].
1. Where the official reports live and how to download them
ICE’s Detainee Death Reporting hub is hosted on ICE.gov and is the official starting point for individual notification releases and, eventually, more detailed death-review reports; the site posts news releases with relevant details within two business days and states that full reports required by the DHS appropriations language will be made public within 90 days [1] [2]. The practical method for obtaining individual reports is to download each narrative release or linked PDF from that ICE webpage or to use the ICE FOIA/DocLib pages where individual Detainee Death Reports (PDFs) appear—examples of such PDF reports exist in ICE’s FOIA library [4] [1]. Reporting does not show an ICE-hosted single-file bulk download labeled “Detainee Death Reporting archive” on the public page; instead, users access items one-by-one or via ICE’s broader document libraries [1] [4].
2. What third-party archives offer and how to get bulk files
Researchers and watchdogs have repackaged ICE-produced datasets and FOIA releases into downloadable archives: the Deportation Data Project hosts large ZIPs of historical ICE enforcement files (the group offers a 2012–2023 ZIP, for example) that include many ICE releases produced in response to FOIAs and can serve as a practical bulk source for death-reporting material when ICE’s site requires piecemeal access [3]. These third-party collections compile original files released by ICE and are explicitly described as republishing ICE’s FOIA outputs, not creating new internal ICE datasets [3].
3. How the reporting is organized (narratives, formal reviews, and metadata)
ICE’s public workstream produces short newsroom notices within two business days and separately issues more detailed Detainee Death Reports—these reviews typically include demographic/background information, immigration history, a timeline of detention and medical events, and findings about policy compliance, as seen in example FOIA PDFs [1] [4]. The agency’s Directive 11003.5 and its Notification, Review, and Reporting Requirements set the structure for what must be documented (who is notified, timelines for reporting, and that OPR/IHSC/ODO examine circumstances) and therefore shape the contents of those files [5] [6].
4. Data formats and technical access pathways
Individual reports are published as web news items and PDFs on ICE.gov and in ICE’s document library (FOIA/DocLib), while broader ICE detention and book-in/book-out datasets appear as CSVs in related DHS analytic systems referenced by oversight offices; an official pipeline extracts EID events into CSV monthly for analytic reporting contexts, indicating that some detention metadata exists in machine-readable CSV forms elsewhere in DHS/ICE reporting workflows [7] [1]. The public-facing death reviews themselves, however, are usually narrative PDFs rather than standardized machine-readable death-databases [4] [1].
5. Caveats, gaps, and where advocates and reporters fill in blanks
Independent watchdog reports and journalism underscore gaps between death narratives and underlying exhibits—advocacy groups have documented omitted records, missing exhibits, and investigative shortcomings in ICE death investigations, and journalists have at times had to rely on local medical examiner reports or FOIA releases to confirm details not immediately visible on ICE’s page [8] [9] [10]. When ICE’s public page lacks a single bulk archive or when entries lag, researchers turn to FOIA libraries, third‑party archives like Deportation Data Project, and contemporaneous press coverage to assemble a fuller dataset [3] [10].
6. Bottom line for researchers trying to download and use the archive
Start with ICE.gov’s Detainee Death Reporting hub and its FOIA/DocLib links for official narratives and PDFs and supplement with third‑party bulk repositories such as the Deportation Data Project for downloadable ZIPs of historical ICE FOIA releases; expect most official death reviews to be narrative PDFs organized around demographic background, timelines, findings, and policy citations rather than a single standardized death-table CSV, and be prepared to use FOIA and advocacy reporting to obtain underlying exhibits not always attached to online reviews [1] [4] [3] [8].