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At least 6 people dead in ICE custody so far in 2026

Keith Preston
At least 6 people have died in ICE custody just three weeks into 2026.1

A medical examiner is likely to rule one death a homicide, with a witness reporting guards strangling a man at the Camp East Montana prison.2

32 people died in ICE custody last year, the most in over two decades.3 Less than a month into 2026, Trump’s ICE is topping that horrifying record pace.

At just one tent prison, Camp East Montana, three people died over a period of less than two months.4 Human rights groups have documented a “disturbing pattern of abuses, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food” at Camp East Montana.5 Lawmakers called Trump’s Alligator Alcatraz an “internment camp” and described people packed into makeshift cells with their only drinking water coming from the toilets.6

Demand Progress has sent hundreds of thousands of messages demanding that Congress holds ICE accountable for this network of lawless torture prisons. Congress must take urgent action to investigate detention centers, end the abuses, and shut down prisons like Camp East Montana and Alligator Alcatraz.

Will you make a donation to help support our work, including our efforts to investigate and close deadly ICE prisons?

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ICE is holding a record 68,000+ people in its dangerous, abusive detention centers.7

The crisis extends far beyond just Camp East Montana and Alligator Alcatraz. Human Rights Watch, the ACLU, and other human rights groups have documented hellish conditions at facilities in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other states.

Senator Jon Ossoff reported on hundreds of human rights abuses at immigrant prisons nationwide, including the widespread mistreatment of pregnant detainees and children.8

After an ICE agent murdered Renee Good in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quietly signed an order barring congressional oversight visits to ICE facilities without a week’s notice.9 Since then, U.S. lawmakers including Reps. Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison, and many others have been prevented from entering ICE buildings.10

ICE is trying to hide their abuses from the public.

We are ramping up our campaign to hold ICE accountable for these horrors and end the suffering in Trump’s immigrant prisons.

Will you donate today to support our work, including our fight to shut down ICE’s network of torture prisons?

With gratitude,

The team at Demand Progress Action

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Sources:

  1. The Appeal, “Deaths in Detention Warn of Horrors Behind ICE’s Prison Walls,” January 17, 2026.
  2. The Washington Post, “Medical examiner likely to classify ICE detainee death as homicide, call says,” January 15, 2026.
  3. The Guardian, “2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. Here are the 32 people who died in custody,” January 4, 2026.
  4. Common Dreams, “Investigation Demanded as ICE Reports Third Death at Texas Detention Center in 44 Days,” January 19, 2026.
  5. ACLU, “ACLU Renews Calls for Closure of Camp East Montana Following Reports that Detained Immigrant Was Choked to Death by ICE Officer,” January 16, 2026.
  6. USA Today, “‘Help me!’ Democrats decry ‘vile’ conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigrant prison,” July 14, 2025.
  7. The Guardian, “Number of people in ICE detention hits record high, data shows,” December 22, 2025.
  8. NBC News, “Hundreds of alleged human rights abuses in immigrant detention, report finds,” August 5, 2025.
  9. Kyle Cheney on X, “BREAKING: A day after the Minneapolis shooting, Secretary Noem quietly signed a new policy barring congressional visits to ICE facilities without a week’s advance notice…” January 10, 2026.
  10. Axios, “Ilhan Omar and other Democrats blocked from ICE visit after Minneapolis shooting,” January 10, 2026.

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