HRW and PHR link the rise in deaths to expanding detention, overcrowding and weakened oversight in the U.S. immigration system.
The death rate in U.S. immigration detention facilities has reached its highest level in nearly two decades during President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which attributes the increase to expanded detention, overcrowding and deficiencies in medical care.
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The report, Dying in Detention: The Rise in Deaths in an Expanding U.S. Immigration Detention System, documents 52 deaths in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and says the agency’s detained population increased by 77% between January 2025 and January 2026.
According to the report, 10 of the people who died in ICE custody between Jan. 20, 2025, and June 4, 2026, were Mexican nationals, the highest number among the 20 nationalities recorded. When deaths that occurred during enforcement operations are included, the figure rises to 15 over the same period, and to 16 following the death of another Mexican national in ICE custody on June 19.
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The report states that the annual number of deaths tripled between January 2025 and January 2026, resulting in a 138% increase in the annualized mortality rate. The current rate stands at 8.4 deaths per 10,000 detainees, nearly double the peak recorded during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the rate reached 4.4 per 10,000.
HRW and PHR warn that the unprecedented increase in detentions has coincided with the dismantling of oversight mechanisms within the Department of Homeland Security. The report also identifies failures in the provision of external medical care for detainees and overcrowded conditions that further strain already inadequate healthcare services inside detention facilities.
Most of the 39 deaths examined in detail occurred in facilities where the detained population had exceeded historical averages during the two weeks preceding each death.
Among the documented cases is that of Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a 39-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the United States since the age of four. He died on Sept. 22, 2025, at the Adelanto Processing Center in California after detention staff allegedly failed to transfer him promptly to a hospital despite his complaints of an infected abscess.
The report also documents the case of Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, a Mexican national who arrived in the United States at the age of four. He died in August 2025 at age 32 after spending nearly two weeks in isolation following a COVID-19 infection. His mother told Human Rights Watch, “I do not know the exact cause of my son’s death.”
“Detainees stand by a window inside the federal immigration center at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, where ICE is housing detained immigrants, on May 26, 2026.” Human Rights Watch
ICE is currently holding more than 60,000 people in detention, with plans to expand capacity to 90,000 by the end of 2026. According to the report, 18 people have died in ICE detention facilities during 2026 alone.
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