ICE Detainee Suicides Surge to Record High, AP Investigation Reveals
An Associated Press investigation published Wednesday has found that at least 10 ICE detainees have died by suicide since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, marking an unprecedented spike that public health experts describe as deeply alarming. The suicides account for nearly 20% of the 51 total deaths in ICE custody over the past 17 months, according to a review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroners’ rulings and police records conducted by AP News.
Since October 2025, seven deaths have been classified as suicides — already the most for any fiscal year in the agency’s two-decade history. ICE has typically recorded just one or no such deaths annually. Under the previous Biden administration, which held roughly half as many people, there were two suicides over four years.
The Human Toll
All 10 victims were men, with an average age of 32. Nine were Hispanic men from four countries; one was a Chinese citizen. Despite President Trump characterizing those facing deportation as the “worst of the worst,” seven of the 10 had no record of violent crimes in the U.S., the investigation found.
Among the victims was Brayan Rayo Garzon, a 26-year-old Colombian military veteran who had worked as a housepainter in St. Louis. After being arrested on a minor fraud charge in March 2025, Rayo was transferred to the Phelps County Jail in Rolla, Missouri — a facility that had recently begun taking ICE detainees to generate revenue. He spent his final days sick with COVID-19 in isolation, pleading in handwritten notes to call his mother. A guard collected his note and walked away. Within an hour, he was found unconscious in his cell.
Chaofeng Ge, a Chinese citizen, arrived at a Pennsylvania GEO Group facility in mental distress last summer after pleading guilty to a minor gift card fraud. In five days at the facility, he received no mental health treatment and could not communicate because no one spoke Mandarin. He was found hanged in a shower stall.
Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan restaurant worker, was arrested on an immigration violation in Minneapolis on January 6 and sent to Camp East Montana in Texas. He died by suicide eight days later. His family has ordered a second autopsy, expressing deep suspicion about the circumstances of his death.
Systemic Failures Across the Network
The deaths occurred across ICE’s sprawling detention network, revealing what experts describe as systemic failures. Five detainees died in centers run by private contractors CoreCivic and the GEO Group. One died at Camp East Montana, operated by Acquisition Logistics — a Virginia company with no prior experience running ICE facilities that had been awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion. ICE has since replaced the contractor. Three died in county jails and one at a federal prison.
An AP investigation found recurring violations of ICE’s own detention standards: delayed medical screenings, canceled mental health appointments, failure to monitor at-risk detainees, and the use of isolation that experts say can exacerbate feelings of helplessness. At least three of the nine facilities where deaths occurred struggled to meet ICE’s requirement that detainees receive medical and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival.
At Camp East Montana, an ICE inspection in February documented 49 violations of detention standards, including failure to record required checks to prevent self-harm and unsecured tools and equipment. NBC News reported more than 1,000 emergency calls from six detention centers over the past year, with 28 involving serious self-harm — including detainees swallowing razor blades, drinking cleaning chemicals, and cutting their own wrists.
Expert Alarm
“Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco who co-authored a study on ICE mortality rates. “This is one of those alarming, sudden increases.”
Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of New York City jails who previously consulted with ICE on preventing detainee deaths, called the rise “terrifying.” He said the increase “reflects failures in how the system’s being operated, and particularly failures in how the first stages of coming into detention are happening so that people aren’t being assessed adequately.”
Official Response
Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said suicide deaths in ICE custody remain “extremely rare” and that detention staff follow protocols to protect detainees who show signs of self-harming. A DHS spokesperson told NBC News that “death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population” and that detainees receive “access to proper medical care.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on his country’s foreign ministry to issue a formal protest over Rayo’s death, saying the U.S. government should “reflect on how its immigration policy is killing Americans and Latin Americans.”
Broader Context
The suicide spike comes amid a dramatic expansion of ICE detention under Trump’s second term. The detained population has surged by 50% to approximately 60,000, peaking at nearly 71,000 in January 2026. The average length of detention has increased from 36 to 50 days. Meanwhile, the number of inspections has dwindled, with at least two of four DHS offices responsible for oversight being gutted. A $20 million federal funding increase is expected to boost inspections tenfold.
What to Watch
Several key questions remain unanswered. The FBI is investigating the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at Camp East Montana, initially described as a “presumed suicide” but ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. The Diaz family awaits results of a second autopsy. Whether ICE will implement meaningful reforms — and whether Camp East Montana will be closed — remains uncertain as the agency faces mounting scrutiny from Congress, human rights advocates, and foreign governments.