ICE Detention Deaths Hit 23 This Fiscal Year, Highest Since 2004

NPR reports that 23 people have died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since the fiscal year began in October, already surpassing last year’s total and putting 2026 on track to be the deadliest year in immigration detention since 2004. The most recent case involved a 56‑year‑old Haitian man held at a private facility in Arizona who died in a hospital after going into septic shock. The spike in deaths coincides with a surge in detention to nearly 70,000 people, following last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which gave the Department of Homeland Security about $70 billion to expand detention space and hire more deportation and detention officers. Advocates and former officials say overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and inadequate medical care are driving preventable fatalities, pointing to recent measles outbreaks at the Florence Detention Center in Arizona, the Dilley family facility in Texas, and Camp East Montana in Texas, where three detainees have died. DHS has not commented on the rising death toll, while outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE insist detainees receive exams and access to treatment within hours, claims that sit uneasily beside on‑the‑ground reports of worsening conditions and minimal external oversight.