At least 89 people have died in the custody of U.S. immigration agencies, or been killed by their agents, since 20 January 2025. 67 died in ICE or Border Patrol custody. 21 were killed by an on-duty ICE or CBP agent, or died during one of their operations.

The only official count, ICE's own list of deaths in its detention, includes 58 of them. The other 30 are not on it: 21 people killed by agents or during enforcement operations, 8 people who died in Border Patrol custody, and 1 who fell ill in ICE detention, whose death ICE confirmed to reporters but has left off its list. ICE's list only covers deaths in its own detention system, so it was never going to show most of these. These extra deaths have no government record counting them at all.

Every death below has its own page on The ICE List, with the sources behind it. You can download the full list as a spreadsheet (CSV). We can confirm this is a minimum number, however, we rely on public information and reporting, so we cannot confirm deaths that may be withheld from the public by ICE or CBP.

How we counted

A death is counted if the person died in ICE or CBP custody (including Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations), or was killed by an on-duty ICE or CBP agent or during one of their operations in the United States, on or after 20 January 2025. There is one exception to this, an individual killed during an operation undertaken by the Coast Guard.

Three cases sit at the edges of our own definition, we have added them to our counter, but feel we should be transparent about each as many reading this may disagree on whether or not they qualify as deaths caused by immigration enforcement.

The three deaths in question are: José Efraín Chajón Raxón who fell ill a day after he was booked into Delaney Hall; ICE claims it released him from custody while he was in hospital, and has not said when he died. An unnamed 22-year-old man near Carrizo Springs, Texas, died in the care of Border Patrol agents who had located him after his 911 call. Walter Turner II died in a crash at the end of a chase that Border Patrol agents began.

We built the list from independent records: ICE's own Detainee Death Reporting list, Human Rights Watch's research, CBP's own death notices, and reporting from across the USA, including local outlets.

Before publishing, every death not on ICE's list was audited a number of times, once by an auditor whose sole purpose was to find reasons to take each death off the list, looking for any plausible deniability for their inclusion. That audit removed four deaths from the count, a broader ICE-related death toll is being tallied and will be released by Crust News, those 4 deaths will be included in that broader list.

This count is as of 28 September 2026. If you have information that changes any entry, tell us and we will correct it. All ICE-related inquiries, tips or issues can be sent to icelist@crustnews.com

The 31 deaths missing from ICE's list

All 89 deaths

Download the full list as a spreadsheet (CSV), with each person's details, what happened, and links to the sources.

Recorded, but not counted

These deaths are documented on The ICE List, but fall outside the count as defined above. We list them so that our reasons are open to scrutiny.

• Wael Tarabishi (23 January 2026). Died of illness after ICE detained his father, who was his caregiver. He was never in custody or at an enforcement action, so it is recorded as a consequence of enforcement rather than counted.
• James Douglas McMillan (4 March 2026). Killed after running a Border Patrol checkpoint and firing at pursuing officers and civilian vehicles. The count excludes deaths where the person who died was the shooter.

The ICE List also records deaths that followed from enforcement without a custody or operational link, such as people who died after deportation. Those are kept in a separate record and are not part of this count.