WASHINGTON (Reuters): A Vietnamese man with cardiovascular problems collapsed and died in the “Speedway Slammer,” the repurposed Indiana maximum-security prison that’s become a symbol of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In a Pennsylvania detention center, a Chinese man who had previously attempted suicide was found hanging in the shower. In a New York facility, a Honduran man with an elevated heart rate and tremors from alcohol withdrawal died in his cell with no emergency care.
These men are among 50 people who have died in U.S. immigration detention since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation campaign in January 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement records show.
Between 2009 and 2024, U.S. immigration facilities had one death annually for every 3,848 detainees, based on the facilities’ average daily population, a Reuters analysis of ICE data found. That rate has more than doubled since Trump returned to office, reaching about one death for every 1,630 people based on preliminary data through early June.
The data analyzed by Reuters was obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a public records request and processed by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for lower incarceration rates.
The causes of detainee deaths can be complex and do not necessarily stem from neglect or abuse by detention-center administrators. But three experts in detention deaths who reviewed ICE records and autopsies for Reuters said the rising rate and other data points raised concerns about the quality of supervision and medical care in detention centers that have seen their populations balloon under Trump.
The population rose in the last year of Democrat Joe Biden’s administration, which stepped up enforcement amid election-year criticism. ICE held about 40,000 immigrants when Trump took office, up from a Biden-era low of about 14,000 in February 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under Trump, the number shot up to about 70,000 at its January peak, during a major crackdown in Minneapolis, before falling back to about 57,000 as of early June.
Twenty-one of the 50 deaths were discovered after the detainee was deceased or unresponsive, ICE records show. These cases, which included 10 suicides, are especially concerning, because they could reflect a lack of physical- and mental-health oversight and timely care, said Sanjay Basu, an associate physician at the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied ICE detention deaths, one of the three experts who reviewed the data and records for Reuters.
Heart attacks and cardiovascular issues accounted for 16 deaths, which the medical experts said suggested potential problems with initial health screenings and chronic-disease management.
Chanelle Diaz, an assistant professor of medicine at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said the data and records show the agency is choosing to imprison medically vulnerable people, resulting in a “spike in preventable deaths.”
