As the Trump administration throttles ahead with its mass-deportation agenda, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has logged its deadliest year in 20 years, a National Public Radio data analysis found.
At least 20 people have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to records obtained by the news organization. Those fatalities come as the agency holds nearly 60,000 people in detention, a drastic jump from prior years.
The current number of custodial deaths is the highest recorded since 32 people died while under ICE’s care in 2004, NPR reports. The agency tallied another 20 deaths in 2005 as well.
Former agency officials told NPR the situation is likely to get worse. The sheer number of people in custody, coupled with decreased oversight, rising arrest numbers and the agency’s ongoing shortage of medical staffers is a recipe for disaster, they added.
“Can staffing actually keep pace with the increase in population? And that becomes particularly challenging in more remote locations where it was already difficult to find qualified staff willing to come out and work,” said Peter Mina, who worked for both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security’s Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) unit.
“And that just places risk all across the system, including, unfortunately, individuals in detention facing medical conditions that might result in their death.”
The Trump administration has slashed hundreds of jobs at the CRCL unit Mina once worked for, according to NPR. Meanwhile, the Office of Detention Oversight — the other agency charged with overseeing ICE deaths — is temporarily closed due to the government shutdown.
The new organization’s data analysis shows that deaths this calendar year have been the result of tuberculosis, strokes, respiratory failure and three possible suicides.
This month alone, two more detainees have died in ICE custody, NPR reports.
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