The number of deaths in ICE custody rose to 30 in the 2025 calendar year, surpassing all previous annual totals since records began in the early 2000s. The figure marks a sharp increase from recent years and comes as the average daily number of people held in immigration detention has also climbed to its highest level since before the pandemic.
Deaths in custody fell during the early Covid years, reaching a low of three in 2022, before rising again as detention numbers increased. In 2024, 11 people died while in ICE custody. That figure nearly tripled in 2025 under a second term of the Trump administration.
ICE data show that the previous high point was 20 deaths in 2005, with another spike recorded in 2020, when 18 people died during the first year of the pandemic. The latest increase stands out for both its scale and the speed at which it has occurred.
Many of these deaths have led to widespread condemnation of the ICE agency's treatment of detainees and their increased detentions. This condemnation even seeped into this year's Grammys.
Detentions surge alongside deaths
The total number of people held in ICE detention centres has also risen sharply. After falling sharply between 2019 and 2021, the detained populations have risen steadily over the past four years.
By late 2025, the number of people in ICE custody had reached its highest recorded level. This represents a near five-fold increase from the low point of around 13,000 in early 2021.
While higher detention numbers alone do not explain the rise in deaths, the overlap between record-high populations and record-high fatalities has renewed scrutiny of detention conditions, access to healthcare and oversight inside ICE facilities.
