50 deaths in ICE custody since Trump took office

At least 50 people have died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Donald Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025.

The data comes from a count carried out by Austin Kocher, a researcher at Syracuse University, which includes official figures.

The most recent death was that of Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man who had been detained for just four days when he was found unconscious inside a bus transporting him between two detention centers in Georgia.

Arenas-Silva He died on July 13th inside a vehicle that was transporting him from one detention center to another. Arenas-Silva's sister stated that the agents initially ignored the family's request that he be allowed to bring the medication he needed with him.

His death was the 22nd recorded while in ICE custody during 2026.

And it is the 50th death of people in ICE custody since Trump assumed his second term in January 2025. Ten others died during this period. immigration operations, bringing the total number of deaths in incidents linked to ICE to 60.

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The human cost of migration policy

60 deaths linked to ICE

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, 50 people have died in ICE custody and another ten during operations or incidents related to the agency. Each circle represents a life.

The 60 Lives

Select a circle or use the filters to explore the count.

Detention center Transfer Hospital Shots While trying to escape Attack in Dallas

50 deaths in custody

In detention centers43

During transfers2

In hospitals, still under custody5

10 deaths linked to operations

From gunshots4

While trying to escape4

In the attack on the Dallas office2

The ten deaths outside the centers

It includes people who died during immigration actions and two detained men who died in the attack on an ICE office.

Data published through July 15, 2026. Total does not include deaths linked exclusively to CBP border operations. Chart: Enlace Latino NC .

A center with a history of abuse

Arenas-Silva was held at the Irwin County Detention Center, a facility run by the private company LaSalle Corrections.

ICE had canceled its contract with the center in 2021, after a whistleblower nurse and dozens of detained women said a gynecologist associated with the facility had performed invasive and medically unnecessary procedures without proper patient consent.

A Senate investigation concluded in 2022 that the detained women had apparently been subjected to “excessive, invasive and frequently unnecessary” gynecological procedures.

However, ICE resumed using the facility in October 2025 as part of expanding its detention capacity.

43 deaths in centers, two during transfers and five in hospitals

Kocher's count allows us to see where the 50 deaths recorded in ICE custody occurred since Trump returned to power.

Of that total, 43 people died inside detention centers. Two others, including Arenas-Silva, died during transfers between facilities. The remaining five died in hospitals while still formally in the agency's custody.

The figure includes 22 deaths that occurred during 2026. In 2025, ICE reported 33 deaths throughout the calendar year, the highest number recorded in more than two decades.

A death rate that is growing faster than the arrest rate

The increase in deaths is not solely explained by ICE detaining more people.

Un report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights It concluded that deaths grew at a disproportionately higher rate than the detained population. Between January 2025 and January 2026, the annual mortality rate in custody increased by approximately 140% compared to the previous year.

They found worrying signs of delays in care, failures in the delivery of medicines, inadequate responses to emergencies, and problems in the treatment of people with pre-existing physical or mental conditions.

Deaths in ICE custody are not isolated cases

For Kocher, the deaths should not be analyzed solely as individual tragedies or as a succession of isolated events. They must also be understood as the foreseeable outcome of a system that imprisons tens of thousands of people, many of them in private facilities or far removed from their families and legal representatives.

The researcher argued that what he is documenting is not simply a count that increases with each new death, but the result of a structure that continues to operate despite allegations of negligence, lack of medical care, and dangerous conditions.

“Death is a feature, not a mistake,” he said, describing how the immigration detention system works.

Ten other people died during ICE operations

Deaths at the hands of ICE are not limited to the 50 people who died in custody. Ten additional deaths have been recorded since January 2025, occurring during immigration operations or in incidents directly related to ICE actions.

Two of the victims, Norlan Guzmán-Fuentes and Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, were being held at an ICE office in Dallas when a gunman attacked the building in September 2025.

Four other people died while trying to escape from immigration agents: José Castro-Rivera in Virginia; Jaime Alanís García and Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez in California; and Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán, a Mexican tourist who was run over by a truck in Florida after running towards a freeway during an encounter with federal agents.

Four more people died from gunshot wounds during immigration operations: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston; Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero in Maine; Renee Good and in Minneapolis; and Alex PrettiAlso in Minneapolis. In this latter case, the shots were fired by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents participating in an operation in support of ICE.

Adding both groups together, the total number of deaths related to ICE arrests or actions since the beginning of Trump's second term rises to 60. Fifty people died in custody, and another ten died during operations or incidents involving the agency.

50 people have died in ICE custody since Trump returned to power