The number of deaths in ICE custody is already more than double all of last year

Ten people have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody so far this fiscal year, more than twice as many as last year and three times as many as the year before, according to ICE data and news releases.

There have been more deaths in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, than in all 12 months of five of the six preceding years. The only fiscal year for which the 12-month total exceeds the current tally is 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic. That year, 21 people died while in ICE custody. That compares with four in 2023, three in 2022, five in 2021, eight in 2019 and six in 2018.