Ten people have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody so far this fiscal year, more than double last year and three times the year before. according to ICE data and press releases.
There were more deaths in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, than in all 12 months of five of the previous six years. The only fiscal year in which the 12-month total exceeds the current count is 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic. That year, 21 people died in ICE custody. This compares to four in 2023, three in 2022, five in 2021, eight in 2019 and six in 2018.
An ICE spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News that it “takes the safety of those in its custody very seriously and remains committed to ensuring that all those in its custody reside in safe, secure, and humane environments.”
“Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout their stay,” the agency said in the statement, as well as in previous statements following the detainees’ deaths. “All people in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health screenings within 12 hours of arriving at each detention center, a complete health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. At no time during detention shall a non-citizen detainee be deprived of emergency care.”
The agency also said its ICE Health Service Corps “ran an operating budget of nearly $324 million across the spectrum of health services provided to people in ICE custody in fiscal year 2022.”
Two of the deaths in the current fiscal year occurred on consecutive days last week, according to ICE statements.
Hugo Boror Urla, a 39-year-old Guatemalan migrant in ICE custody, died May 22 in a Michigan hospital, according to a report. agency statement last week. He was in ICE custody, held at the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek, Michigan, for about a month before he died, according to the release. Border Patrol found Boror Urla on April 17 near Taylor, Michigan, and served him with an order for expedited removal from the country, ICE said.
The ICE statement did not provide additional details about Boror Urla’s health or hospitalization and said an official cause of death is pending.
An official cause of death is also pending for Cambric Dennis, a 44-year-old man from Liberia who died in ICE custody in Georgia on May 21. according to the agency.
Dennis, who entered the U.S. legally in 1997, was booked into the ICE Stewart Detention Center in Columbus in late October 2023 while awaiting removal proceedings after being convicted of an aggravated crime related to controlled substance trafficking, said the agency.
The two men are among six who have died in ICE custody since January, according to ICE.
ICE’s average daily population for this year is 37,835, according to the agency. That compares to 28,289 in fiscal 2023 and 22,578 and 19,254 in fiscal 2022 and 2021, respectively, according to ICE.
In fiscal year 2020, when 21 people died in ICE custody during the height of Covid, the average daily population was 33,724.
In fiscal year 2019, when eight people died, the average daily population was 50,165.
Immigration advocates have condemned what they say are ongoing human rights violations inside ICE’s private detention centers and called for greater accountability and transparency in the wake of deaths in the agency’s custody.
They also called on ICE to release detainees who have health problems and potential sponsors into the country while their immigration cases unfold. Advocates also called for the closure of specific detention centers that have been hit by multiple allegations of such human rights violations and other inadequate conditions.
The recent death toll has been “horrible,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South, which advocates for social justice issues, including immigration rights, in the South.
“President Biden promised he would take some action on privatized migrant detention, and instead they have seen nothing,” she told NBC News on Thursday. “What we have seen are continued abuses, continued human rights violations and continued deaths.”
“It’s a real cause for concern,” she said.
An ICE spokesperson said this month that “the use of private detention service providers is a vital piece of the nation’s detention system, allowing ICE to successfully execute its mission.”
“The agency’s ability to remove individuals to their home countries and hold in custody those who require detention and are a threat to public safety is directly dependent on the location and availability of detention space,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, immigrant rights advocates held a small candlelight vigil outside ICE’s New Orleans field office for a man who died in Louisiana in late February and others who died in ICE custody, seizing the opportunity to call on the federal government to cut ties with troubled detention centers. Ousmane Ba, a 33-year-old man from Senegal, died on Feb. 23 after being hospitalized for nearly a month, according to a statement from ICE.
He had been detained at the Winn Correctional Center in rural Winnfield since early September after entering the United States in late August, ICE said in a Feb. 26 statement.
“There will be another death. It’s just a matter of time,” said Sarah Jones, co-chair of the organizing committee of the Southeast Coalition for Dignity and Non-Detention, at Ba’s vigil, held just over a week before the deaths of Boror Urla and Dennis.
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