On September 14, 2025, Hasan Ali Moh’D Saleh, a lawful permanent resident, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and transferred to Krome Detention Center in Miami, Florida for removal proceedings. On October 10th, Saleh was transported to Larkin Community Hospital due to a fever; the next day, he was dead.
As immigration raids take place in front of cameras across the country, an unseen crisis has developed behind heavily guarded gates. With the escalation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Related Operations (ERO) in the United States under the second Trump Administration, there is mounting public outcry and a flurry of legal challenges concerning the lack of due process regarding the arrests of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers, and green card holders like Mr. Saleh. Conflicting narratives have emerged between advocates and authorities regarding the safety and welfare of individuals detained in ICE-related actions.
As of September 2025, the Trump Administration is holding nearly 60,000 immigrants in ICE detention facilities around the country, not including those held by local authorities under detainer requests from ICE. Seven in ten people detained have no criminal convictions; the majority are working age adults who deny serious medical complaints at intake. Even so, detainees are dying in custody at record speed, most often due to illness, according to reports made public by ICE.
The agency maintains that relevant details linked to ERO-related deaths are published on its website within two days. However, the “relevant details” connected to the demise of immigrants like Mr. Ismael Ayala-Uribe at age 39 are often cloudy. According to ICE records, Uribe was arrested on August 17th, 2025. On September 18th, nurses noted that Mr. Uribe was in “10 out of 10 pain” near his anus, so a physician ordered a pain reliever and fiber. By September 21st, he was vomiting, sweating, and his heart rhythm was abnormal, having deteriorated to the point that medical staff needed to transfer him to a local hospital. The ICE press release, replete with an account of Uribe’s crimes, arrests, and his DACA status, states that early on September 22nd, he became unresponsive and died.
In the landmark Supreme Court case, Estelle v. Gamble, the Court found that such unnecessary suffering is inconsistent with contemporary standards of decency, codifying the common law view that “[we are] required to care for the prisoner who cannot by reason of the deprivation of his liberty, care for himself.” Given the inmate’s complete reliance on staff for medical treatment, the Court explained that the “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs” constitutes the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment involving the “unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain” forbidden by the Eighth Amendment. The Court further held that such neglect by prison doctors and guards can result in torture or lingering death, and in less severe instances, cause unnecessary pain and suffering which serves no legitimate penological purpose.
Legislators have worked to gain oversight of detention centers for the purpose of investigating welfare complaints and medical standards in settings where patients do not have the autonomy to make informed decisions about their healthcare. NPR received a rare look inside ICE facilities via inspection reports from experts hired by The Department of Homeland Security. In the findings from 2017-2019, inspectors cited negligent medical care that, in some cases, contributed to detainee deaths.
One inspection revealed that in the Calhoun County Correctional Center, a man in ICE custody was sent into general population with an open wound from surgery and no bandaging, even though he still had surgical drains in place. Jesse Dean, a detainee at the same facility, was never referred to a physician although he had been unable to eat, lost almost 20 pounds in a short time, and suffered from severe nausea; he died in custody from an undiagnosed gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
A joint study published by American Oversight revealed that the overwhelming majority of incidents such as Dean’s could have been prevented if ICE detention medical staff had provided timely and clinically appropriate medical care to include correct, appropriate, and complete diagnoses for detained immigrants.
After 2020, loss of life in ICE custody attributed to chronic or acute medical conditions declined, and spiked recently in correlation to Trump-mandated mass ERO’s:
- As of October 2025, 20 immigrants are reported to have died in detention between January and October; this year’s statistics are the highest under ICE custody since 2005. (Actual ERO-associated morbidity and mortality rates are likely higher, as the agency has been accused of undercounting the number of detention deaths for years, as well as discharging some detainees shortly before they died.)
- 14 died due to probable medical causes (cause of death or hospitalization listed as hemorrhagic stroke, respiratory failure, acute coronary syndrome, kidney disease, seizures, unknown unresponsiveness, among other medical issues).
As ICE arrests surge, concern continues to grow over rising morbidity and mortality rates in immigration detention centers, along with the absence of accountability or consequences for responsible parties. While an analysis of factors contributing to preventable detainee medical deaths cannot cure those who are no longer alive, an honest post-mortem inquiry into systemic failures is vital in order to safeguard the living.