Related Articles
-Editorial
Fifteen immigrants have died in immigration detention so far this year, ten of them between January and June, making that period the deadliest in recent history. Some of these deaths were suicides.
More than 1,200 people are allegedly missing from the infamous and controversial Everglades facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” with families and attorneys unable to find them.
Advocates report that children are being subjected to prolonged detention under harmful conditions, and that reports of overcrowding, unsanitary facilities, and problems with food and health care access are multiplying.
There are currently close to 60,000 detainees, a record number, and the rapid expansion of arrests and detention, combined with diminishing transparency, signals a worsening situation for immigrants, most of whom have not been convicted of any crime.
Heather Hogan, Policy and Practice Counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), delivered a powerful presentation underscoring the urgent need for transparency, oversight, and reform in U.S. immigration detention. Drawing from her experience as a former asylum officer with USCIS, Hogan described the inhumane conditions faced by asylum seekers detained in facilities across Arizona, California, and Texas — many of whom have no criminal record.
Hogan recounted how detainees are treated like criminals, often shackled, mocked, and referred to by officials as “bodies.” She detailed how asylum seekers — including survivors of kidnapping, sexual violence, and political persecution — are subjected to further trauma through prolonged detention, poor mental health care, and, in some cases, solitary confinement. Hogan noted that even individuals at risk of suicide or members of the LGBTQ+ community are placed in isolation under the guise of “protection,” a practice that the United Nations classifies as torture when prolonged.
Hogan emphasized that the federal government has used detention punitively to pressure migrants into abandoning their asylum claims. She cited recent California oversight reports that found serious deficiencies in mental health care, suicide prevention, and the treatment of mentally ill detainees.
AILA, she said, advocates for ending family detention altogether and replacing it with community-based alternatives — including case management and legal representation — that respect human dignity while ensuring compliance with immigration proceedings.
Civil rights attorney and journalist Andrew Free, founder of the #DetentionKills project, delivered a sobering presentation exposing widespread failures in the federal government’s reporting and oversight of deaths in immigration detention. Since 2017, Free has documented deaths in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody, working with families and communities seeking accountability after the loss of loved ones.
Free began his work after the 2017 suicide of Jean Jimenez at Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center — now recognized as the deadliest immigration facility in the nation over the past eight fiscal years. He said the fiscal year that ended this week marked 22 reported deaths in ICE custody, the second-highest total on record since 2004.
Through his independent database and collaboration with the Deportation Data Project, Free has uncovered at least five added deaths in fiscal year 2025 that ICE has not publicly acknowledged. He also named hundreds of unreported deaths dating back to 2009, suggesting that many detainees who died in local or state custody under ICE detainers were never publicly recorded.
Free noted that while ICE publishes death announcements, the data often conflicts with internal spreadsheets and external reports. “There’s an intentional ignorance imposed by a system that knows when people die because they have to move the bodies out,” he said, comparing today’s lack of transparency to the obstruction faced by Ida B. Wells when reporting on lynchings.
Most deaths in 2025 occurred in Florida and Texas, with overcrowded facilities like the Krome Detention Center facing severe staffing shortages. Free also found that about one in five detainees who die in custody are from Mexico, followed by Cuba and other Latin American nations.
Now focusing on investigative journalism, Free uses his platform to help reporters and advocates access verified data on deaths in ICE custody. He warned that the true number of fatalities is still unknown. “What is the real number of people dying in ICE custody? I don’t actually know,” he said. “And I don’t think anybody does.”
