ICE discloses 11 custody deaths; court orders DHS to justify journalist detention

"At least 11 people died in ICE detention between January and early March 2026, according to Reuters, citing official agency records. The full fiscal year 2026 total, running from October 2025, stood at 23 deaths by early March, per NPR. The 2025 full-year figure was 31 deaths, the highest annual total since 2004. ICE is legally required to post details of each custody death on its public website within two business days and to notify Congress within 90 days. An NPR review found that ICE's detainee death reporting site had a lag in updating fiscal year 2026 numbers as of early March.\n\nNearly 70,000 people were in ICE detention by early March 2026, the highest number in several years. The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office at DHS, one of the offices responsible for overseeing detention conditions, had seen hundreds of staff cuts over the preceding year. DHS did not respond to NPR's questions about whether the Office of Detention Oversight was operational during the agency's ongoing partial shutdown."

"Several of the 11 deaths involved documented medical failures. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban national, died on Jan. 3 at a detention center in 🤠Texas. The 🌲Washington Post reported that a local coroner might rule the death a homicide, though DHS later said he had attempted suicide and resisted security staff. Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan national, died Jan. 14 at a Texas facility in what ICE called a presumed suicide. The same day, Heber Sanchez Dominguez, a 34-year-old Mexican national detained in 🍑Georgia after an arrest for driving without a license, was found hanging in his sleeping quarters. Emanuel Cleeford Damas, a Haitian national, died March 2 at a hospital in 🌵Arizona after reporting shortness of breath while held at the Florence Detention Center. ICE said the cause of death was unknown.\n\nAustin Kocher, an assistant research professor at Syracuse University who studies the immigration enforcement system, told NPR the deaths were preventable, not simply a demographic function of the larger detained population. A 2024 ACLU study of 52 deaths in ICE detention from 2017 to 2021 found the vast majority could have been prevented with clinically appropriate medical care."

"Estefany María Rodríguez Florez is a reporter for Nashville Noticias, a Spanish-language outlet in 🎸Tennessee. She came to the United States from Colombia on a tourist visa in March 2021. Before the visa expired she filed for political asylum, citing death threats she received in Colombia for her coverage of armed groups and government corruption. She married Alejandro Medina, a U.S. citizen and Nashville musician, in January 2026, and applied for a green card. Her asylum claim and green card application were both pending when ICE agents detained her on March 4.\n\nOn the morning of March 4, an ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Fugitive Operations Team followed Rodríguez, her husband, and their daughter as they left their home. Agents waited until after the child was dropped off at a school bus stop. They pulled the couple over at approximately 7:15 a.m. in the parking lot of a Crunch Fitness on Murfreesboro Pike in South Nashville. The vehicle displayed the Nashville Noticias logo. Several unmarked vehicles surrounded the car. One agent already had a photo of the vehicle on his phone. Rodríguez had covered an ICE arrest in the Nashville area the day before her own."

"ICE said Rodríguez had failed to appear for two immigration appointments, making her a flight risk. Her attorneys disputed that account in detail. The first missed appointment, scheduled for Jan. 26, fell on the day Winter Storm Fern shut down Nashville and ICE's own ERO office was closed. ICE rescheduled the appointment for Feb. 25. Two days before that date, Rodríguez's husband and an attorney from her legal team visited the ICE office in person, seeking to have the charging document mailed to her attorneys rather than requiring her to appear. The duty officer told them Rodríguez was not in the system and no appointment existed for her on Feb. 25. The officer told them to have Rodríguez come back on March 17 instead and gave them a notice reflecting that date.\n\nDHS filed an image of the purported arrest warrant in court on March 6. The document, dated March 2, appeared crumpled and photographed rather than flat and scanned. The certificate of service section, where officers note that the warrant was served on the subject, was entirely blank. Her attorney, Joel Coxander of MIRA Legal, told the court that an ICE agent had indicated at the time of arrest that no warrant existed."

"Coxander filed an emergency petition for a writ of habeas corpus the day Rodríguez was detained. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ordered DHS to file a written justification for her continued detention by midnight on March 9 and set a hearing for March 17, the same date ICE had told Rodríguez to report voluntarily. Rodríguez's legal team filed an amended petition on March 10 asserting First and Fifth Amendment violations, arguing the arrest was direct retaliation for her ICE coverage and asking the court to enjoin ICE from taking any enforcement action against her in retaliation for her journalism.\n\nNashville Mayor FOFreddie O'Connell called for a swift return to her family. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists condemned the arrest as a dangerous precedent for reporters covering immigration. A coalition of 41 press-freedom and civil-society organizations demanded her immediate release. As of March 10, Rodríguez remained in an 🏈Alabama detention facility, awaiting possible transfer to 🎺Louisiana."

"The 11 custody deaths and the Rodríguez detention share a common condition. ICE's enforcement pace scaled faster than the infrastructure built to support it. Rapidly expanding arrests contributed to overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and delays in medical care at detention centers, according to media reports and immigration advocates. Medical professionals who worked in detention centers told NPR they witnessed chaotic screenings and life-threatening delays in getting medication and care to detainees.\n\nThe DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office, which typically investigates custody deaths, was among the oversight offices that lost hundreds of staff in the preceding year. During the agency's prior 43-day shutdown in fall 2025, the Office of Detention Oversight was shut entirely. Five people died in custody during that period. DHS did not answer NPR's questions about whether the office was functioning during the current shutdown as of the March 10 reporting date."