Seven people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this month — four of them within a four-day span — making it the deadliest month for detainees in President Donald Trump’s second term.
This year had the most deaths in immigrant detention since 2004. The uptick in deaths comes as ICE wraps up the year with a record high of more than 68,000 people in detention, according to the agency’s detention statistics.
In notifications of detainees’ deaths, ICE stated two of the men — Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, a 46-year-old from Eritrea who had been detained for 215 days, and Nenko Stanev Gantchev, a 56-year-old from Bulgaria — died in processing centers. An additional five died in hospitals. One of them, 39-year-old Dalvin Francisco Rodriguez from Nicaragua, was found without a pulse at a Pennsylvania detention center on Dec. 4 and was pronounced dead 10 days later.
The deaths in quick succession prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups, who questioned the treatment of immigrants at the facilities. Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons pressing the agency heads over conditions at Camp East Montana, where immigrants are housed in tents, following the first reported detainee death.
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Escobar, who represents the district where the largest detention center is located, referred to the deaths in ICE custody as heartbreaking in a statement to NOTUS.
“For the billions of taxpayer dollars that are being spent, the conditions at detention centers do not meet minimum federal standards for care of human beings,” she said. “Especially with our recent legal win against the Trump administration to conduct true oversight at detention centers, my Democratic colleagues and I will continue to hold the administration accountable.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on the deaths in detention this month, but has stated in the past that the rate of deaths is relatively low compared to the number of people in its custody. In a Dec. 10 press release notifying the death of Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani, a 48-year-old from Pakistan, the agency stated that in-custody deaths in the past year averaged less than 1%.
Throughout the year, detainees, their families, attorneys, civil rights organizations and Congress members have denounced the lack of medical attention immigrants get in detention. Federal judges have ordered ICE to improve detention conditions in Illinois, New York and California.
Immigrant rights advocates have also denounced ICE’s handling of illness and deaths. Lucía Pedro Juan, the wife of Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, told the El Paso Times immigration officers didn’t allow her to see him before she was deported to Guatemala. The couple lived together in Florida for nearly two decades. Pedro Juan and Gaspar-Andres were both detained at Camp East Montana, but she found out her husband was taken to a local hospital from her daughter, Pedro Juan said.
Gaspar-Andres died of liver and kidney failure, according to the agency’s notification of his death.
Democratic lawmakers have sought to maintain oversight of detention facilities given DHS cuts of staff working on oversight. Congress members regained unrestricted access last week to ICE detention centers after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that stopped them from conducting oversight visits.
On Tuesday, Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey visited Delaney Hall detention facility for oversight after the death of Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old from Haiti who died in the center earlier this month. It was her first visit there since what her lawyers say is a politically motivated prosecution by the Trump administration, which alleges she assaulted immigration officers during a protest at Delaney Hall in May.
The 32 deaths announced by ICE this year include Norlan Guzman-Fuentes, 37, and Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, 31, who were shot when a sniper opened fire at a Dallas ICE facility. In Norfolk, Virginia, Jose Castro-Rivera, a 25-year-old from Honduras, died after a vehicle struck him while he fled from immigration officials.
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