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At least 18 ICE detainees have died shortly after being released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities this year. This week, ICE announced that it would no longer release information related to such deaths. Advocates worry that this will obscure ICE’s practice of releasing severely sick detainees so that they die outside of facilities.
In 2021, the Biden administration ordered ICE to report to Congress about any detainees who die within 30 days of being released from ICE facilities. ICE detainees “routinely” die at hospitals after being transported there for conditions that have worsened inside detention facilities, NBC News reported.
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In March, ICE reported that 46 people died while in their custody or detention facilities since the start of the second Trump administration; at least nine have died due to suicide, and five have died from other causes, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported.
ICE has said that detainees receive adequate medical care, but detainees at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey and elsewhere have alleged medical neglect, poor sanitary conditions, and rotten food.
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Markwayne Mullin, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), repeatedly refused under Senate questioning on Tuesday to commit to following court orders to restrict illegal actions by the DHS.