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Note: This content contains details related to deaths that may be upsetting.

Friend, we are just over one month into 2026, and six people have already died in ICE detention facilities this year. May they rest in power:

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55 years old
Parady La, 46 years old
Victor Manuel Diaz, 36 years old
Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz, 68 years old
Heber Sanchez Dominguez, 34 years old
Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42 years old

As we shared in the email below, 2025 was the deadliest year in two decades for immigrants in ICE custody. At least 32 people lost their lives while detained by ICE — a horrific outcome of our government repeatedly failing to provide humane, safe conditions in these facilities.

It’s not just the conditions of facilities that are a threat — it's the culture of violence and cruelty that pervades the entire system. Last month, a guard choked Geraldo Lunas Campos to death while in custody at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. His death, ruled a homicide in an autopsy report, is one of three at this facility alone.

And this crisis will only continue to worsen. With ICE's exorbitant detention budget and lack of accountability, more preventable deaths are all but inevitable.

Congress is currently considering continuing to give more funding to ICE and CBP, including hundreds of millions specifically for detention. Instead of expanding funding for an abusive, deadly system, lawmakers should be focused on ending the use of for-profit prisons. Passing the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act is a critical first step — this bill would work to end family detention, ban private for-profit prisons, and ensure immigrants have a fair opportunity to seek release from detention on bond.

Email your members of Congress today and urge them to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act. ([link removed])

EMAIL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ([link removed])

Detention should never be a death sentence. Congress has a responsibility to act before more lives are lost.

Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock
Senior Policy Counsel
National Immigration Law Center

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Note: This content contains details related to deaths that may be upsetting.

The number of people dying in ICE custody is unprecedented.

2025 is the deadliest year for immigrants in ICE custody in two decades — at least 24 people have lost their lives since January. From January to June alone, 11 people died — the highest death toll for that period in any year of publicly available records.

This trend is alarming and unconscionable.

These tragic deaths underscore ICE’s failure to adequately evaluate medical conditions before detaining people. Ten immigrants died within a month of being taken into custody, suggesting they may have been ill before detention and calling into question ICE’s claims that they provide comprehensive medical care. Among them was 68-year-old grandfather Abelardo ‘Lalo’ Avelleneda-Delgado, who lost his life in transit to Stewart Detention Center.

Detention facilities have never been safe. But the recent surge in funding — including $45 billion from Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act" to expand immigrant detention — is making them even more overcrowded, dangerous, and more deadly.

Trump’s mass deportation machine has allowed the unjust, horrific treatment of immigrants for profit — and it must end now.

That’s why we’re asking you to take action today. Call on your members of Congress to demand immediate oversight and accountability. We’ve already written the email; all you have to do is hit send. ([link removed])

TAKE ACTION ([link removed])

The people who lost their lives in ICE custody should still be alive today because detention should not be a death sentence. Many of these people were beloved community members whose memory we carry forward in our fight for dignity, safety, and justice for immigrants.

Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock
Senior Policy Counsel
National Immigration Law Center

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National Immigration Law Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. NILC’s federal tax identification number is 95-4539765.