On August 1, 2026, 39-year-old Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo died from suspected medical complications while in Immigrant Customs and Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey. As of October 16, 2026, his death is one of 57 reported by ICE since President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025. This figure also reflects the highest reported death count in ICE custody in over a decade and is quadruple the number of deaths reported during the Biden administration.
As of July 2026, more than 65,000 people are incarcerated in 220 detention centers across the US, a 75% increase over the past year. Among the largest detention centers is Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, a facility capable of housing up to 5,000 people at a time. Camp East Montana is among many detention centers in the US that have received public scrutiny due to alleged abuse, inhumane treatment, unsanitary conditions, and medical neglect of detained people.
Migrant deaths in ICE custody
Prisciliano Trejo, a Mexican national with leukemia, died on July 24 following his release from the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. Despite asking for medical attention, ICE did not provide him with treatment until a week after it was requested.
Trejo and Lopez Corenjo are among dozens of migrants who have recently died during ICE custody. Nationwide, people detained in centers, including Delaney Hall, are conducting hunger strikes following the surge in deaths. They are also protesting against the alleged physical abuses by officers and inhumane conditions, such as being fed spoiled food.
In response, many families and organizations are now calling upon the US government to take accountability for the rise in deaths, improve detention conditions, and ensure adequate medical care to all detained people.
Poor conditions and alleged medical neglect
The National Detention Standards (NDS) uphold national protocols for the health, safety, and security of all immigrants in ICE custody, but have undergone significant changes in recent years. These revisions include removing regular maintenance inspections, expanding the criteria for using force against detainees, and limiting the scope of medical responses.
Since immigration detentions are considered a type of civil detention, individuals should not be subject to punishment during detainment. However, safeguards for detained people vary widely across the country, and multiple reports have found that many facilities are failing to uphold basic standards. Between January 2025 and March 2026, 32 deaths were attributed to neglect of one or more medical conditions.
Despite the surge in deaths, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that “ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens.”
However, according to a study examining healthcare access among 21 ICE facilities, researchers found that more than half experienced prolonged physician staffing shortages, five had no behavioral health providers at all, and more than 10% of physicians working at the facilities had been state-sanctioned for malpractice. Investigative reporter Jonathan Blitzer also found that facilities would often deny detainees their medications, ignore underlying medical conditions, house individuals in very confined spaces, and infrequently clean tents and bathrooms.
Changes in death reporting
On June 2, 2026, ICE revoked a 2021 policy enacted by the Biden administration requiring ICE to report to Congress any deaths of detained people within 30 days of their release. The purpose of the 2021 policy was to ensure ICE could not avoid taking accountability for any deaths by releasing severely ill people, as many have died shortly after their release due to medical complications.
This new change will allow ICE to limit its accountability for any death once individuals are out of their custody, potentially distorting death statistics. According to a DHS representative, ICE is no longer responsible for “monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur.”
Expansions to ICE detention facilities
The stated purpose of ICE detention facilities is to house migrants “subject to mandatory detention or those that ICE determines are a public safety or flight risk”.
In recent years, however, ICE detention facilities have increasingly been composed of non-criminal immigrants, with a 2,450% increase in the number of people detained with no criminal record. Although many immigrants are expected to be either released or deported following their trials, immigration judges are being instructed to deny bond to those eligible. As such, the number of discretionary releases under the Trump administration has fallen by 87%. Detained immigrants are also increasingly being denied due process, with 60% subject to mandatory detention and denied bond hearings.
ICE detention centers have also undergone significant expansions, including a $45 billion budget and a 600% increase in at-large arrests occurring in the community. The Trump Administration is now seeking to construct as many as 14 more detention facilities in locations including Texas, Hawaii, New York, the Virgin Islands, and Guantanamo Bay.
Since President Trump took office again in 2025, he has also reinstated funding meant for family detention, while also implementing a controversial “zero tolerance” family separation policy, generating controversy among advocates who are concerned that family detentions will harm and traumatize children.