The number of people who have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this fiscal year has reached a record high.
Twenty-nine detainees have died since October, the start of the federal fiscal year, exceeding the 28 deaths recorded in 2004, according to government data.
The most recent death involved 27-year-old Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban man held in ICE custody in Miami. ICE reported he was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of April 12 and listed the cause as a “presumed suicide,” though the official cause remains under investigation. ICE said Carbonell-Betancourt entered the United States in 2024 without valid documents and was paroled into the country. He was arrested in 2025 on a charge of resisting an officer with violence and was transferred into ICE custody earlier this year.
The rise in deaths has come as detentions have expanded under the Trump administration. ICE detention levels are more than 70% higher than during the first year of the Biden administration, reflecting an escalation in enforcement that has included arrests of people with criminal records as well as many without criminal histories, including some who had temporary protections from deportation. ICE figures show roughly 60,000 people are currently in immigration detention.
The Department of Homeland Security disputed that the higher number of deaths represents a spike beyond what would be expected given the larger detained population. As of April 16, DHS said the death rate under the Trump administration was 0.009% of the detained population. The agency said ICE provides detainees access to medical care and argued that for some detainees detention has provided the best healthcare they have received. DHS also encouraged migrants to “self-deport,” pointing to the CBP Home App as a way to manage departures.
At a congressional hearing, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons tied the increased number of deaths to the agency’s historically large detention population and noted that ICE spent “almost half a billion dollars last fiscal year … to ensure that people have proper care.” Lyons said detainees receive a complete physical within 14 days of admission and are seen by a medical professional within 24 hours. “No death is what we want. We don’t want anyone to die in custody,” he said. Lyons submitted his resignation hours after testifying.
Lyons was unable to specify how many staff remain in the Office of Detention Oversight and faced questions about delays and gaps in public reporting of detainee deaths. In a letter to Lyons and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock said that of 49 deaths in custody since January 2025, ICE issued an interim death notice within 48 hours in only 15 cases and that many reports included limited detail. Lyons said the agency is working to meet reporting timelines and that issuing those notices is vital work even amid funding interruptions.
Two facilities — the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California and Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas — have each reported three detainee deaths, the most among ICE detention sites. ICE’s initial reports attribute those deaths to a range of causes, including suicide, alcohol withdrawal, liver failure and kidney failure. Some detainees had exhibited symptoms such as shortness of breath.
One death at Camp East Montana was later ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office. DHS initially said Geraldo Lunas Campos experienced “medical distress,” that he had been disruptive while waiting for medication and was placed in segregation. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, citing “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” and the FBI is investigating. An attorney for Lunas Campos’ family said he arrived in the United States in the mid-1990s during the Cuban balsero migration and had lived and raised a family here for decades. DHS said Lunas Campos had prior convictions, including petty larceny, unlawful possession of a weapon during a robbery, and sexual contact with a child under 11. His three children have said they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit and seek eyewitness testimony.
Rahul Mukherjee contributed to this report.