Takeaways from AP investigation that found ‘alarming’ spike in suicide deaths of ICE detainees

Detainees in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are taking their own lives at a pace unprecedented in the agency’s two-decade history, highlighting what experts call failures in care and oversight, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

At least 10 detainees have died by suicide since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025 and ordered ICE to increase arrests and deportations, the investigation found. There have been seven such deaths since October, already the most in a fiscal year. ICE typically has recorded just one or no annual suicides.

The increased pace of suicides exceeds the growth in ICE’s detainee population, and those deaths account for nearly 20% of the 51 people who have died in ICE custody since January 2025.

Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary Lauren Bies said suicide deaths in ICE custody remain “extremely rare.”

Bies said detention staff follow protocols to protect detainees who show signs of self-harming and that ICE requires annual suicide prevention training. She said detainees receive comprehensive healthcare, including mental health services.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Here are some takeaways from AP’s investigation:

Those who died were nearly all Hispanic

Nine of the 10 who died were Hispanic men. One was a Chinese citizen. Their average age was 32.

They had usually been in ICE custody for less than a month and sometimes only a matter of days, according to AP’s review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroner’s rulings and police records

Among those who took their own lives was a 19-year-old laborer from Mexico, a 27-year-old housepainter from Colombia, and a 36-year-old restaurant worker from Nicaragua. Seven of the 10 had no record of violent crime.

Suicides have happened across ICE’s detention network

The deaths have revealed holes in treatment and oversight across ICE’s system, where the detained population has spiked by 50% to 60,000 during Trump’s second term, AP found.

Five died in centers run by longtime ICE detention partners, CoreCivic and the GEO Group. A sixth died at a camp operated by an inexperienced contractor that ICE has since replaced. Three died in jails run by sheriffs. One died at a federal prison.

“We are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care,” CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd said.

GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said the company trains staff on suicide prevention and seeks “to maintain a safe and secure environment in compliance with the standards and requirements set by the federal government.” Officials who run the county jails declined to comment.

AP’s examination found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s standards.

Staff ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk. They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm.

In some cases, distressed detainees were confined in isolation, a situation that can exacerbate feelings of humiliation and helplessness, according to experts.

Three of the facilities where ICE detainees died by suicide have struggled to meet ICE’s requirement that detainees receive medical and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, according to inspection reports and jail records.

Experts are alarmed by the increase

Experts said the unprecedented number of suicides is an indication that authorities are failing to properly oversee the detention of tens of thousands of immigrants swept up in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy.

“Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who cowrote a study documenting the increase in mortality and suicide rates among ICE detainees. “This is one of those alarming, sudden increases.”

Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of New York City jails and an expert on ICE detainee deaths, called the rise in suicides terrifying.

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,” he said. “And then if that receiving screening picks up red flags, they’re not acted on in a way that reduces the risk of them having preventable death.”

A death at a Missouri jail highlights problems

Last year’s suicide of 27-year-old Brayan Rayo Garzon at the Phelps County Jail in Rolla, Missouri, highlights gaps in how facilities assess, monitor and care for such detainees, experts said.

The Colombia native had been picked up by police in St. Louis on a misdemeanor fraud charge and turned over to ICE. The agency sent him to the jail in Rolla, which had recently started taking ICE detainees to generate revenue.

The jail did not perform an intake screening on Rayo for 35 hours. That’s when he began exhibiting labored breathing, said he was anxious and requested mental health treatment that he did not receive.

Rayo grew ill with COVID-19 in the following days. He experienced aches, fevers, chills and nausea. The jail twice scheduled him for a routine mental health appointment but they were canceled each time, first due to staff concerns and then due to his infection.

Rayo was put into medical isolation, which meant he was alone in a cell and could not have his nightly phone call with his mother. On the fourth day, he passed notes in Spanish to English-speaking guards begging to speak with her.

Within an hour, he was found unresponsive. He died the next day. An autopsy determined he took his own life.