Detainee Deaths in ICE Custody Hit Two-Decade High, With at Least 30 Reported in 2025

Apart from being one of the years with the most detentions carried out by immigration officials, 2025 has also been one of the deadliest for detainees in recent years. According to a report by Reuters published earlier this month, at least 30 people have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this year, the highest number since 2004.

Although the agency has repeatedly said it is committed to ensuring detainees are held in "safe, secure and humane environments," numerous reports from detainees, human rights advocates and lawmakers have denounced the horrible conditions people face inside immigration detention centers.

According to ICE press releases, at least six detainees have been reported dead this month, with the most recent deaths occurring between Dec. 12 and 15, ICE notices said. Among those reported dead this month was a Guatemalan man who, according to his widow, showed no signs of illness before being apprehended by ICE in September.

In an exclusive report by USA TODAY, Lucía Pedro Juan said she was detained by the Florida State Highway Patrol on Sept. 1 in Homewood, Florida, along with her husband, Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés. Unable to produce paperwork, they were turned over to immigration agents and later held at a Florida detention center before being transferred to Texas, becoming some of the first detainees held at Camp East Montana in El Paso.

"It's there in Texas where we suffered," Pedro Juan said.

In an interview with the outlet, Pedro Juan described the treatment inside the El Paso detention facility as cruel, saying the conditions were inhumane and caused many women to become sick.

She also told USA TODAY she endured abuse from guards who mocked detainees in English, referring to them as animals.

"That's what happens when you are a donkey," she recalled guards saying. She said detainees were also called pigs and told they were being fed dog food. According to Pedro Juan, the insults came from guards whose "parents are immigrants like us."

"I don't know why you treat us like this," she said.

Pedro Juan insists her late husband was healthy before being detained, despite an ICE press release stating that Cristóbal Andrés received medical care from the day he entered custody.

According to ICE, he was treated for alcohol withdrawal days after being detained on Sept. 1. From that point on, ICE said he received medical attention at the El Paso facility on five different occasions for a variety of issues, including lightheadedness, flu-like symptoms, bleeding gums, a sore throat and body aches. He was also treated for fever, cough, swelling in his left leg and high blood pressure, according to the agency.

On Nov. 16, Cristóbal Andrés was taken to the Hospitals of Providence East Campus after suffering from low blood pressure and swelling in his legs, according to call logs obtained by the El Paso Times through a Freedom of Information Act request to the city of El Paso.

At the hospital, Cristóbal Andrés was diagnosed with hyponatremia, a serious condition in which sodium levels in the blood drop below normal. According to the investigation, he was placed on a liver transplant list and later received dialysis and palliative care. On Dec. 3, 93 days after he was first detained, Cristóbal Andrés was pronounced dead from liver and kidney failure, according to an ICE press release dated Dec. 5.

Human rights groups, along with lawmakers, have raised concerns about the detention facility and Cristóbal Andrés' death.

"This kind of detention is only going to accelerate that harm, and it is gravely unfortunate that this man has passed," said Marisa Limón Garza, director of the El Paso-based immigrant rights advocacy group Las Americas, during a Dec. 12 news conference. "I am confident that this will not be the last [death in the facility]."

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed claims of mistreatment in ICE detention facilities as "fear-mongering clickbait."

"No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States," McLaughlin said. "Get a grip."

Pedro Juan said she was shocked by her husband's deteriorating health. According to her testimony, Cristóbal Andrés drank from time to time on weekends with friends but she was unaware of any preexisting health conditions.

"About a year ago, we took him to the doctor," Pedro Juan said. "He never complained to us, even when he was sick, nothing."

She described her suffering and her husband's death as a tragedy, adding that her family never came to the United States with the intent to cause harm and rejected the idea that they were criminals who needed to be removed under the Trump administration's mass deportation policies.

"I hope the government, or the ICE agents who detained us, understand that we are people, we give our labor to the world," Pedro Juan said.