Between January 20, 2025 and June 4, 2026, 52 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in the United States. The mortality rate reached its highest level in over a decade, nearly four times that of the Biden administration and more than double that of Trump's first term. The surge coincided with the Trump administration's aggressive expansion of immigration detention to record highs exceeding 71,000 people. Physicians for Human Rights documented that medical experts had high suspicion of inadequate or delayed health care in several of the 39 deaths during the first 12 months, and identified seven deaths by apparent suicide compared to one in 2024. On June 4, 2026, the nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight sued U.S. immigration authorities seeking autopsy reports, toxicology reports, and internal reviews related to the deaths, alleging that ICE, CBP, and DHS failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests filed in April 2026.