Tell Congress: Investigate Deaths in ICE Detention

As your constituent, I urge you to investigate the alarming rise in deaths in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and demand greater transparency and accountability from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

A joint investigation by Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch found that 52 people died in ICE custody during the 500 days between January 20, 2025, and June 4, 2026. The mortality rate in ICE detention is at its highest level in more than a decade. It has more than doubled since President Trump’s second term began and is nearly four times the rate during the Biden administration.

This increase cannot be explained solely by the growth of the detained population. Although the number of people in ICE detention reached a record high of more than 71,000 in January 2026, deaths increased disproportionately. From January 2025 to January 2026, the annual mortality rate rose by approximately 140 percent compared with the prior year.

PHR medical experts reviewed the available information concerning all 39 deaths that occurred during the administration’s first year. In every case, the government failed to publicly provide enough information about the circumstances of death and medical care provided to support a definitive independent clinical assessment. Even so, the available records revealed evidence of inadequate or delayed care in several cases, raising serious concerns that some deaths may have been preventable.

In one case, 44-year-old Maksym Chernyak suffered a stroke in detention. Despite seizure-like movements and non-reactive, dilated pupils – clear signs of a medical emergency – facility staff failed to ensure that he received appropriate emergency care. PHR concluded that delays in transferring him to a higher level of care almost certainly contributed to his death.

In another case, 39-year-old Ismael Ayala-Uribe repeatedly sought medical help for an infected abscess. His requests were recurrently mishandled before he died from cardiac arrest that PHR assessed likely resulted from overwhelming septic shock.

ICE policy requires public disclosure of a death of a person in custody within 48 hours and more detailed public reporting of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death within 30 days. Yet ICE has systematically failed to release timely and comprehensive information about deaths or the medical care people received. Families have been left without answers about the treatment of their loved ones before they died.

I urge you to use your congressional oversight authority to:

--Investigate deaths, apparent suicides, and possible medical-care failures in ICE detention, including through oversight visits to detention facilities;
--Demand complete and timely information from DHS and ICE about deaths and the care provided before them;
--Hold public oversight hearings with DHS and ICE officials, independent medical experts, affected families, and civil society organizations;
--Press DHS and ICE to ensure that every death in custody is reviewed by qualified medical experts who are independent of ICE, with de-identified findings released publicly within 30 days;
--Demand adequate medical and mental health staffing, timely emergency treatment, suicide-prevention measures, and uninterrupted access to medically necessary offsite care; and
--Press for the release of people whose medical or mental health needs cannot be safely addressed in detention.

When the government deprives a person of liberty, it assumes a responsibility to protect that person’s life, health, and dignity. The public deserves transparency, and families deserve to know what happened to their loved ones.

Please act now to investigate these deaths and help prevent further loss of life.