ICE Found Medical Care Failures in 23 of 29 Deaths in Custody, Records Show

Internal investigators with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found that at least 23 immigrants received inadequate medical care before dying in ICE custody, according to newly obtained agency records.

The San Francisco Chronicle obtained internal reviews of 29 deaths that occurred between January 2025 and January 2026.

The findings apply to the cases examined in those records. Determining whether inadequate medical care directly contributed to an individual's death requires evaluating the circumstances of each case.

The reports provide insight into how detention facility personnel responded when immigrants requested medical assistance and how staff handled life-threatening emergencies.

ICE Medical Care Failures Identified in Detention Centers

Aseguran que EEUU admitió deficiencias médicas en más de 20 muertes de migrantes bajo custodia del ICE https://t.co/m6eODyJj5J

— BioBioChile (@biobio) November 9, 2026

Investigators found that medical personnel in some cases failed to follow safe clinical practices or provide treatment that met established medical standards.

In at least eight cases, staff failed to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or performed it incorrectly, according to the records reviewed by the newspaper.

The internal reviews also reconstruct how medical emergencies unfolded, from the initial request for assistance to intervention by medical personnel or transfer to a hospital.

These timelines help identify failures at different stages of emergency care, including initial assessments, delayed treatment, and resuscitation attempts.

ICE Deaths in Custody: Cases in California and Mississippi

⭕ Huabing Xie, un migrante indocumentado de China, se convirtió el 29 de septiembre en la última persona en morir bajo custodia del ICE en el año fiscal de 2025.

Con él fueron al menos 22 los extranjeros fallecidos tras ser detenidos

🖊 @Pcaromartin
https://t.co/1Tr2WcNPNr

— EL PAÍS América (@elpais_america) October 9, 2025

In California, Huabing Xie reported experiencing chest pain, but neither of the medical providers supervising his care evaluated or treated him.

Xie died of a heart attack nearly two hours later, according to the Chronicle's reconstruction of the incident using internal ICE documents.

In Mississippi, Delvin Rodríguez, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan national, died on December 4, 2025, one day after telling a detention officer that he did not want to live anymore.

According to ICE, medical personnel responded to the emergency, attempted to resuscitate Rodríguez, and transferred him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

ICE Detention Centers More Than Double Amid Expansion

The number of ICE detention facilities increased from 134 in January 2025 to 272 in July 2026, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The Trump administration has sought to expand detention capacity to accommodate as many as 100,000 immigrants at a time.

To support its broader immigration enforcement agenda, the administration plans to use federal funding from a legislative package that allocated approximately $240 billion to immigration enforcement and related border security operations.

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As the detention network expands, oversight must address how facilities assess medical symptoms, respond to emergencies, and ensure that detained immigrants receive timely treatment.

How to Find Someone Detained by ICE

Families can use ICE's official Online Detainee Locator System to search for an adult held in immigration custody. The system is available in Spanish.

Users can search with an Alien Registration Number, commonly called an A-number, and the person's country of birth. They can also search using the person's full name, date of birth, and country of birth.

If a detained individual is experiencing a medical emergency, relatives can contact the detention facility directly and document when they reported the problem and which staff member received the information.

ICE also operates the Detention Reporting and Information Line at 1-888-351-4024, with assistance available in Spanish.

SOURCE: EFE, Clarin