SCOOP: ICE Has Failed to Disclose Info About 8 Immigrants’ Deaths, Defying Congress
Trump has ICE detaining more people than ever. The agency keeps failing to report information about immigrants’ deaths in its custody.
Donald Trump’s administration has failed to provide detailed reports on the deaths of at least eight immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since last February, in defiance of congressionally-mandated deadlines, Zeteo has learned.
ICE’s failure to disclose details about these deaths comes as the agency detains more people than ever, and as a startling number of immigrants are dying in the agency’s custody. The Senate is currently debating legislation to further expand ICE’s budget for enforcement and detention, though the bill’s prospects of passage have grown murkier after Trump’s immigration agents on Saturday killed another US citizen in Minneapolis who had been legally observing their operations.
Under provisions in current law and in the funding bill that the Senate is expected to consider this week, ICE is required to provide detailed reports on immigrants who die in the agency’s custody within 90 days of their deaths. Since October, ICE has failed to do so for at least seven immigrants who have died in detention centers in six states, Zeteo has found.
ICE previously failed to provide a detailed report on the death of an accused drug smuggler who died in February of last year while in custody in Puerto Rico – well past the 90-day time period – bringing the total number of immigrants whose deaths ICE has failed to report in line with congressionally-mandated rules to eight.