Twenty-nine people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, already surpassing 2004’s toll of 28, the previous record, according to government data.
The most recent death was of 27-year-old Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban man held in ICE custody in Miami, Florida. According to an initial report released by ICE on the evening of April 16, Carbonell-Betancourt was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of April 12. The report lists the cause of death as a “presumed suicide,” but the official cause remains under investigation.
The rise in deaths comes as detention numbers have skyrocketed during the Trump administration. Detentions are up more than 70% under President Trump compared to the first year of the Biden administration. The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented crackdown on immigration. Immigration officers have arrested and detained criminals in the country illegally, as well as many people without a criminal record and some migrants who are in the country with temporary protections from deportation.
Former agency officials and immigration advocates have warned that detaining more people — coupled with reduced oversight — will increase the likelihood of more fatalities. “The abhorrent and worsening conditions in detention centers, gross negligence, and a complete lack of oversight have contributed to yet another grim record for deaths in ICE custody,” said Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, an immigrant rights defense organization.
“As a country, we cannot accept that death in federal custody is an acceptable or inevitable outcome of American immigration policy,” she added. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request for comment on the death count.
Democratic lawmakers have also raised questions about the increasing numbers of deaths in detention and detainees’ access to health care, as well as the lag in reporting deaths to the public. Since President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, at least 48 people have died in ICE detention facilities, according to USA TODAY’s tracker.
Todd Lyons, who leads ICE but announced his intent to resign on April 16, told federal lawmakers at least 44 people have died in custody since he began his acting tenure in March 2025. Numbers are higher since Trump returned to the White House promising to dramatically increase deportations from the United States.
“This proves the highest because we do have the highest amount in detention that ICE has ever had since its inception in 2003,” Lyons told Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, during a House budget hearing. Lyons plans to step down at the end of May.
Underwood, who questioned Lyons’ numbers, grilled him on practices by ICE and other Department of Homeland Security agencies in the hearing. DHS has remained partially unfunded since mid-February over lawmakers objecting to immigration agents’ tactics that have resulted in Americans killed during federal operations. Conditions in immigrant detention facilities also have drawn heavy scrutiny since the start of Trump’s second term.
“Just saying simply there’s more detainees, I mean, you have more officers, you have more resources,” Underwood said. “That’s not, in my opinion, a valid rationale why the death rate would be increasing.” Neither Congress nor the public has had a real explanation of why more people are dying in ICE custody.
The most recent death prior to Carbonell-Betancourt was of a 56-year-old Haitian man held at an immigration detention center in Arizona. He died in a hospital after going into septic shock. More people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October — 23 — than died in the whole prior fiscal year.
People place flowers on a fence outside Krome Detention Center in Miami in May 2025, during a vigil to recognize people who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as well as those affected by mass deportations.
The latest fiscal year surpassed death rates from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 16 study, which collected data from fiscal year 2004 through Jan. 19, 2026.
The increase in deaths comes as nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention, the highest number in several years. Former agency officials and immigration advocates have warned that detaining more people — coupled with reduced oversight — will increase the likelihood of more fatalities.
The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented crackdown on immigration. Immigration officers have arrested and detained criminals in the country illegally, as well as many people without a criminal record and some migrants who are in the country with temporary protections from deportation.
Detentions are up more than 70% under President Trump compared to the first year of the Biden administration. The rise in deaths comes as detention numbers have skyrocketed during the Trump administration.
According to government data, twenty-nine people have died in ICE custody since October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, already surpassing 2004’s toll of 28, the previous record.
The most recent death was of 27-year-old Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban man held in ICE custody in Miami, Florida. According to an initial report released by ICE on the evening of April 16, Carbonell-Betancourt was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of April 12. The report lists the cause of death as a “presumed suicide,” but the official cause remains under investigation.
He entered the United States in 2024 without valid documents and later released into the U.S. Via a program known as parole, which allows noncitizens to enter the country without a formal visa, often for humanitarian reasons. He was arrested for resisting an officer with violence in 2025, and then transferred into ICE custody earlier this year, according to the ICE release.
The rise in deaths comes as detention numbers have skyrocketed during the Trump administration. Detentions are up more than 70% under President Trump compared to the first year of the Biden administration. The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented crackdown on immigration.
Immigration officers have arrested and detained criminals in the country illegally, as well as many people without a criminal record and some migrants who are in the country with temporary protections from deportation.
Former agency officials and immigration advocates have warned that detaining more people — coupled with reduced oversight — will increase the likelihood of more fatalities. “The abhorrent and worsening conditions in detention centers, gross negligence, and a complete lack of oversight have contributed to yet another grim record for deaths in ICE custody,” said Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center.
“As a country, we cannot accept that death in federal custody is an acceptable or inevitable outcome of American immigration policy,” she added. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to a request for comment on the death count.
Democratic lawmakers have also raised questions about the increasing numbers of deaths in detention and detainees’ access to health care, as well as the lag in reporting deaths to the public. Since President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, at least 48 people have died in ICE detention facilities, according to USA TODAY’s tracker.
Todd Lyons, who leads ICE but announced his intent to resign on April 16, told federal lawmakers at least 44 people have died in custody since he began his acting tenure in March 2025. Numbers are higher since Trump returned to the White House promising to dramatically increase deportations from the United States.
“It is the highest because we do have the highest amount in detention that ICE has ever had since its inception in 2003,” Lyons told Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, during a House budget hearing. Lyons plans to step down at the end of May.
Underwood, who questioned Lyons’ numbers, grilled him on practices by ICE and other Department of Homeland Security agencies in the hearing. DHS has remained partially unfunded since mid-February over lawmakers objecting to immigration agents’ tactics that have resulted in Americans killed during federal operations. Conditions in immigrant detention facilities also have drawn heavy scrutiny since the start of Trump’s second term.
“Just saying simply there’s more detainees, I mean, you have more officers, you have more resources,” Underwood said. “That’s not, in my opinion, a valid rationale why the death rate would be increasing.” Neither Congress nor the public has had a real explanation of why more people are dying in ICE custody.
The most recent death prior to Carbonell-Betancourt was of a 56-year-old Haitian man held at an immigration detention center in Arizona. He died in a hospital after going into septic shock. More people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since October — 23 — than died in the whole prior fiscal year.
People place flowers on a fence outside Krome Detention Center in Miami in May 2025, during a vigil to recognize people who have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as well as those affected by mass deportations.
The latest fiscal year surpassed death rates from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 16 study, which collected data from fiscal year 2004 through Jan. 19, 2026.
The increase in deaths comes as nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention, the highest number in several years. Former agency officials and immigration advocates have warned that detaining more people — coupled with reduced oversight — will increase the likelihood of more fatalities.
The Trump administration has carried out an unprecedented crackdown on immigration. Immigration officers have arrested and detained criminals in the country illegally, as well as many people without a criminal record and some migrants who are in the country with temporary protections from deportation.
Detentions are up more than 70% under President Trump compared to the first year of the Biden administration. The rise in deaths comes as detention numbers have skyrocketed during the Trump administration.
According to government data, twenty-nine people have died in ICE custody since October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, already surpassing 2004’s toll of 28, the previous record.
The most recent death was of 27-year-old Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban man held in ICE custody in Miami, Florida. According to an initial report released by ICE on the evening of April 16, Carbonell-Betancourt was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of April 12. The report lists the cause of death as a “presumed suicide,” but the official cause remains under investigation.
He entered the United States in 2024 without valid documents and later released into the U.S. Via a program known as parole, which allows noncitizens to enter the country without a formal visa, often for humanitarian reasons. He was arrested for resisting an officer with violence in 2025, and then transferred into ICE custody earlier this year, according to the ICE release.
The next official update on ICE custody deaths is expected when the Department of Homeland Security releases its monthly detention statistics, typically published toward the end of each month. No specific date has been announced for the next report.
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