53 people died in ICE custody in the first 500 days of Trump’s second term — Al Jazeera
In the United States, 53 people died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first 500 days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. They included 39-year-old Ismael Ayala-Uribe, who died on September 22, 2025, after being held at an ICE facility in Adelanto, California, Al Jazeera reports.
Ayala-Uribe was born in Mexico and arrived in the United States at the age of five. He was detained on August 17 while working at a car wash. The man was initially held in a local jail and was later transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
Cause of death and the family’s position
A San Bernardino County coroner’s report found that Ayala-Uribe’s death was caused by complications from an abscess in the pelvic area. The man’s family believes that an infection that could have been treated became fatal because of insufficient medical care in ICE facilities.
Two weeks after arriving in Adelanto, Ayala-Uribe told his relatives about a high fever and a painful growth on his buttocks. On September 18, center staff declared a Code Blue medical alert, indicating a life-threatening condition. According to ICE documents, the man was provided with painkillers, ointment and a fiber supplement.
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Nicholas Cuneo, an expert with Physicians for Human Rights who analyzed the circumstances of the case, said the patient should have undergone a physical examination and been prescribed antibiotics. In Cuneo’s view, Ayala-Uribe’s death could have been prevented with timely treatment.
Data on deaths in ICE custody
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in June that the mortality rate among detainees had remained stable over the past decade. At the same time, Human Rights Watch reported that after Trump returned to power, the annual mortality rate rose approximately threefold, from 2.24 to 6.38 cases per 10,000 people in custody.
According to ICE statistics, 33 people died in the agency’s custody in 2025, and at least 26 had died in 2026 at the time of the article’s publication. Four detainees died at the Adelanto center between September 2025 and March 2026.
Detainees interviewed by Al Jazeera reported inadequate medical care, moldy food and retaliation for protesting detention conditions. Some of them joined a class-action lawsuit filed in January, accusing the U.S. government of “inhumane and unlawful conditions” of detention in Adelanto.
