Mexican citizen dies in ICE custody as deaths surge 290 percent under Trump

Jose Guadalupe Ramos, 52, died in the Adelanto immigration detention centre in California in late March after speaking with his partner Antonia Tovar over Zoom. Ramos, who had been detained for a month following an immigration operation in Torrance, was pronounced dead at 9:30pm on the same day he told Tovar he would call back a few hours later. His death exemplifies a dramatic surge in mortality within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

At least 32 people died in ICE custody during 2025, marking a 290 percent increase compared to 11 deaths reported in 2024. Experts tracking the data project that 2026 will see an even higher total, with 19 in-custody deaths already reported by ICE as of the report date. Sharon Dolovich, a law professor at UCLA who directs the Behind Bars Data Project—the first public dataset on ICE custody deaths—confirmed the upward trajectory and is currently calculating mortality rates relative to the detained population.

The spike in deaths coincides with Trump's second term and his administration's push for mass deportation operations. Since Trump's inauguration, Syracuse University estimates over 405,700 people have been booked into ICE detention. The Trump administration has set daily arrest quotas for immigration agents as part of what it describes as "the largest deportation operation in American history." To accommodate the influx, ICE has contracted with private companies and plans to have 92,600 detention beds by the end of fiscal year 2026.

Tovar and her family blame Adelanto officials for failing to prevent Ramos's death. "They could have saved him. They killed him because, rather than helping him, they didn't do anything," Tovar told Al Jazeera from her California home. The couple had been together since age 13, growing up in the same neighbourhood in Guanajuato, Mexico, and emigrated to the United States in the mid-1990s seeking a better life. Tovar is among families demanding accountability for deaths in custody.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, contests the narrative of rising deaths. A DHS spokesperson stated, "There has been NO spike in deaths," adding that death rates under the Trump administration remain at 0.009 percent of the detained population, consistent with the last decade. The agency also asserted that detention centres maintain standards comparable to or exceeding those in U.S. prisons and provide medical care that is often superior to what detainees have previously received. However, the Ramos family's experience and independent data tracking suggest otherwise.