Immigration

ICE Deletes Reports Flagging Medical Neglect in Detention Center Deaths

The reports found medical care that "deviated beyond safe limits" in dozens of cases where ICE detainees died in custody.

C.J. Ciaramella | 10.1.2026 2:30 PM

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(Illustration: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Flicker/Robyn Mackenzie/Dreamstime/Chris Riha/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) briefly published, then deleted, internal reviews from its website finding inadequate medical care in the cases of dozens of people who died in immigration detention centers.

The internal reports reviewed 33 deaths in ICE detention centers between September 2019 and January 2026. Of the 31 mortality reviews that reached a conclusion, 27 found that care was "not provided within the safe limits of practice" or "deviated beyond safe limits." Three of those reports say those deficiencies may have directly or indirectly contributed to deaths.

The Intercept reported that the reviews were posted on ICE's public records library on September 25, but they appeared to have been taken offline four days later, after an attorney representing The Intercept in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit discovered them.

Project Salt Box, a government accountability group, downloaded the reports before they were scrubbed from ICE's website and published them to the organization's GitHub repository.

The reports document recurring failures across facilities, years, and presidential administrations: Staff ignored detainees' sick calls or handled them by phone, medications were cut off, and staff failed to perform lifesaving measures like CPR during medical emergencies or performed........

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