US Politics
Suicides in ICE detention rise as 911 logs reveal harrowing details of self harm
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Suicides by migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are already at a record level this year, according to a new report that also revealed more than 1,000 incidents of self-harm in detention centers across the country.
The five suicides since January 1 followed four in 2025 and just two during all four years of the Biden administration, NBC News said in a report Thursday that cited ICE data.
The recent rash of suicides is also the most in any calendar year during the past two decades, NBC said.
“If you see a spike, it indicates there is a much larger group of people suffering mental health challenges,” Dr. Sanjay Basu, the lead author of a April research paper on deaths in ICE custody since 2004, told NBC.
In a statement to The Independent, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied any “spike in deaths” and said suicides in custody were “tragic and rare.”
“Consistent with data over the last decade, as of April 30, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population,” the spokesperson said. “As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained higher a standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens — including providing access to proper medical care.
“For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives,” the statement added.
ICE has about 60,000 migrants in custody, up from about 43,000 during the Biden administration, with immigrants averaging 50 days in detention, up from 36 days, NBC said.
In addition to reviewing ICE data on detainee suicides, NBC said it it obtained records that showed more than 1,000 incidents of self-inflicted injuries in six of the nation’s largest detention centers over the last year. They reportedly include 28 serious incidents.
But NBC said the tally reflected a “likely undercount” of the actual total because it’s based on partial data.
The nine suicides since the start of 2025 all reportedly involved men who ranged in age from 19 to 45. Three of them had a history of criminal violence, four had nonviolent criminal records and two had never been arrested, NBC said.
A suicide at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, involved Victor Manuel Diaz, who was brought there after being arrested in Minneapolis on Jan. 6 and died by suicide eight days later, NBC said.
His autopsy was reportedly performed by a military medical examiner and his family is “deeply suspicious” and awaiting the results of a second autopsy, lawyer Randall Kallinen told NBC.
NBC said the most recent incident occurred at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, where a three-day inspection last year by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility revealed that an unspecified number of staffers had failed to complete their annual training in “comprehensive suicide prevention,” which the OPR called a “priority component.”
In its statement, DHS said, “When there are signs of a detainee being at risk for suicide, staff abides by strict prevention and intervention protocol to ensure the detainee’s health and wellbeing is protected. ICE requires annual suicide prevention training, enforces 15-minute checks on suicide watch, and ensures that only clinicians — not custody staff — can remove someone from suicide watch.”
In addition to reviewing ICE data, NBC said it requested 911 call logs from regions surrounding the country’s 16 largest detention centers and received records from six jurisdictions in California, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Washington.
Those records showed at least 39 calls about inmates with “acute psychosis” and an “altered medical state,” NBC.
One involved a migrant who reportedly refused psychiatric medication and collapsed in his cell in the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, after not eating for eight days.
Another migrant in the same facility, Gabriel Leiva, reportedly began fighting with staffers who removed him from a pod with other detainees and asked to be killed while being handcuffed and shackled, NBC said.
After being put into solitary confinement, he covered the window, kicked the door and took actions that showed he was suicidal, then told cops who responded to a 911 call that he didn’t understand “why he is by himself,” NBC said, citing a police report.
An ICE spokesperson told NBC there was no longer anyone with Leiva’s name at the facility.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. In the UK, people having mental health crises can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org