Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Mortality Reviews Reveal Widespread Medical Neglect in Detention Centers

In 2025 ICE’s Health Services Corps completed mortality reviews for eight detainee deaths and posted the reports on its public records library. The reviews detail repeated failures to provide timely medication, conduct physical exams, order labs, and deliver emergency life-saving measures. Within weeks the documents were removed from ICE’s website and de-indexed, though archived copies remain accessible online.

The Intercept

Detention numbers surged during the second Trump administration, rising from roughly 40,000 in January 2025 to nearly 66,000 by December 2025, according to the American Immigration Council. Simultaneously, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reduced oversight mechanisms that previously monitored health standards in ICE facilities. Advocacy groups have long warned that overcrowding and limited medical resources create conditions where serious illnesses and emergencies are inadequately addressed.

The Intercept

• The eight 2025 mortality reviews describe deaths of Johnny Noviello, Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, Marie Ange Blaise, Nhon Nguyen, Oscar Duarte Rascon, Santos Reyes Banegas, Tien Xuan Phan, and Chaofeng Ge.

The Intercept

• Three of those reports linked the deficiencies directly to the deaths.

Reason

• The Intercept notes at least 56 deaths occurred in ICE custody during the second Trump term.

Reason

• Specific failures include: missed vital-sign checks for Vargas after a pneumonia-indicating X-ray; lack of CPR for Blaise despite pulselessness; and failure to administer CPR or secure a gurney for Noviello when found unresponsive.

The Intercept

DHS officials have repeatedly asserted that ICE facilities meet national detention standards.

Reason

• The Intercept’s focus on eight 2025 deaths contrasts with Reason’s accounting of 33 deaths reviewed from 2019-2026, creating a discrepancy in the total scope of documented cases.

Reason

• DHS public statements claim compliance with national standards, while internal mortality reviews and independent audits repeatedly find care “deviated beyond safe limits.”

Reason

• The removal of the reports from ICE’s website limits real-time public access, leaving researchers reliant on archived copies and third-party publications.

Reason

• “This is a case of pretty egregiously managed care,” — Dr. Katherine Peeler, the Physicians for Human Rights adviser

The Intercept

Project Salt Box’s GitHub archive makes the mortality reviews publicly searchable, and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit continues to press ICE for full disclosure of all detention-related medical investigations. Civil-rights organizations have called for congressional hearings to examine oversight gaps and to evaluate whether existing DHS policies adequately protect detainee health.

Reason