ICE detainees are dying by suicide at an ‘alarming’ rate, an AP investigation finds
The deaths exposed delayed mental health care, missed screenings and other lapses across a detention system that has grown to 60,000 people, AP found.
- An Associated Press investigation found at least 10 detainees have died by suicide since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 and ordered ICE to increase arrests and deportations, with seven deaths since October marking the most in any fiscal year.
- The suicide spike coincides with ICE's detained population surging by 50% to 60,000 during Trump's second term, with experts saying authorities are failing to properly oversee tens of thousands of immigrants swept up in the administration's aggressive deportation strategy.
- AP's examination found ICE detention centers repeatedly violated their own standards, with staff ignoring distress signs, delaying mental health treatment, and failing to monitor at-risk detainees; three facilities failed to meet the 12-hour screening requirement for assessments.
- Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary Lauren Bies said suicide deaths remain extremely rare, though the 10 deaths represent nearly 20% of the 51 people who died in ICE custody since January 2025, and seven of those who died had no violent crime records.
- Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist, said 'Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective,' while Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of New York City jails, noted well-run facilities should have few suicides.
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The number of suicides by people in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is unprecedented in the agency's two decades of existence, highlighting a problem experts call lapses in attention and oversight, according to an Associated Press investigation released today.
ICE detainees are dying by suicide at an ‘alarming’ rate, AP investigation finds
The suicides account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. The majority of those deaths were from natural causes and experts say many of them would have been preventable with timely medical care.
People held by ICE dying by suicide at increasing, high rate, AP probe finds
ICE detainees are taking their own lives at a pace that's unprecedented in the agency's two-decade history, highlighting what experts call failures in care and oversight, an AP investigation finds.
ICE Detainees Are Dying By Suicide At An ‘Alarming’ Rate: Sources
Brayan Rayo Garzon was distraught. Detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was on his fourth day of isolation in a Missouri jail as he battled the fevers and chills of COVID-19. His request for mental health treatment had been put off, records show, and staff had forb
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