At least 52 people died in ICE custody in the 500 days between President Donald Trump’s second inauguration and June 4, 2026, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights. The mortality rate over that period had more than doubled since Trump’s second term began, reaching nearly four times the rate under the Biden administration and more than two and a half times the rate during Trump’s first term, a period that includes the deadliest months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report has found that the surge in deaths outpaced the growth of the detained population itself. Between January 2025 and January 2026, the number of people in ICE custody rose by 77%, while annual deaths more than tripled, producing a 138% jump in the mortality rate. Researchers used a statistical smoothing method to filter out month-to-month noise and found that the underlying death rate had climbed to 8.4 per 10,000 detainees by June 2026, nearly double the peak trend level recorded during the first year of the pandemic. The gap was large enough to be statistically significant on its own terms, meaning the current sustained rate exceeded even the worst confirmed period of the Covid-19 era.
Physicians for Human Rights has reviewed the medical documentation ICE made public for the 39 deaths recorded during the administration’s first year and has concluded the records themselves to be part of the problem. Detainee Death Reports frequently omitted exact vital sign measurements, left unclear whether requested medical visits ever occurred, and failed to specify what treatment, if any, had been given before someone died. ICE’s own policy requires initial death notices within 48 hours and fuller reports within 30 days, but researchers found 64% of notices were posted late, and one report did not appear until a full year after the death it described.
Four case studies illustrate what the sparse records obscure. Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man, suffered what doctors later diagnosed as a hemorrhagic stroke at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida. More than four and a half hours passed between an initial emergency call and his arrival at a hospital emergency room, and staff documented his pupils as nonreactive, a classic warning sign of brain herniation, without escalating his care. His medical records revealed elevated blood pressure at earlier clinic visits that had gone untreated. Reviewers say that the delay in calling 911 “almost certainly” contributed to his death.
Santos Banegas Reyes, a 42-year-old Honduran man, died 17 hours after arriving at the Nassau County Correctional Center in New York, where he had been flagged during intake for symptoms of alcohol withdrawal and prescribed medication but was not checked on again until he was found unresponsive the next morning. His attorney said the nearly 17-hour gap in monitoring was “inexcusable” given the severity of his condition.
Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old Mexican man held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, made repeated complaints about a growing abscess that staff treated with pain medication and ointment rather than a physical exam, and died of septic shock before reaching surgery.
Serawit Gezahegn Dejene, a 45-year-old Ethiopian man, sought care four times for back pain before an emergency room scan revealed what intake screening had missed entirely, a cluster of untreated infections including HIV that had progressed to AIDS.
The report ties the rise in deaths to both longstanding problems and changes specific to the current administration. Chronic understaffing, overcrowding, and weak reporting requirements predate Trump’s return to office, but researchers say that most of the 39 deaths occurred in facilities where the population in the two weeks beforehand had been far above historical norms.
They also note that the administration has dismantled oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security that previously investigated in custody deaths.
Seven of the 39 people died by apparent suicide, compared with one reported suicide in all of 2024, a shift researchers link to inadequate mental health screening and follow-up care.
Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights sent their findings to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in January and to her successor, Markwayne Mullin, in May, along with questions for GEO Group, CoreCivic, Acentra Health, and Akima Global Services, the contractors that operate many of the facilities where deaths occurred. Only Acentra Health responded.
Acentra Health said that “we have not assessed whether delays or gaps in claims processing may affect the quality or continuity of health care provided to individuals in ICE custody. We are not contracted to assess quality or continuity of care, nor have we received any detainee data that might be used for such an assessment.”
The report calls on Congress to withhold funding for further detention expansion and to create an independent medical oversight body with authority to investigate deaths, inspect facilities, and enforce compliance. Without such changes, it warns, the current death rate is likely to continue.
