As ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) expand their operations and build a larger network of concentration camps nationwide, they have also become deadlier for those caught up in the system. The 32 deaths in custody that occurred in 2025 made it the deadliest year for ICE in more than two decades. So far in Trump’s second term in office, at least 41 people have died in ICE custody.
Those who died (or were killed) came from all over the world, including Latin America, Africa, Europe and East and Southeast Asia. They died in detention centers and incidents all over the U.S., from Michigan in the north, to Los Angeles in the southwest, to New York, Pennsylvania and Florida in the east. Although a handful died from incidents like getting hit by a car while fleeing or by gunshot, the overwhelming majority died in detention. ICE claimed that a handful died of “apparent” suicide. ICE blamed more than one dozen of the deaths on “natural causes,” yet the oldest among them was only 72, and the majority were in only their 30s and 40s.
It is obvious that none of these people died of natural causes. What is obvious instead is that almost every one of them died from easily preventable conditions. What is also obvious is that terrible (or no) medical treatment, poor food and hygiene and the stress of detention, all combined with brutality by their captors, are killing detainees. Had they not been detained, it is likely that every one of these people would still be alive, living and working and being with their loved ones, as they had been previously. The U.S. government is actively and openly creating a system of concentration camps that are causing the deaths of more and more detainees. There are currently at least 70,000 detainees in these centers. We know that, as this assault on immigrants continues, it will kill more and more of them. And their plans are to do more of the same. People have been organizing against ICE all over the U.S. In Minneapolis, they showed a path toward ending this barbarism.
May 21, 2025: Federal agents take a person into custody outside an immigration court in Phoenix, Arizona.
