Grim Start To 2026: ICE Custody Deaths Pile Up After Deadliest Year On Record | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Four migrants died whereas in custody of U.S. immigration authorities over the primary 10 days of 2026, in keeping with authorities press releases, a lack of life that adopted report detention deaths final 12 months below President Donald Trump.

The incidents concerned two migrants from Honduras, one from Cuba and one other from Cambodia, and occurred from January 3-9, in keeping with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The spate of in-custody deaths coincided with the deadly capturing of a Minnesota mom of three by an ICE officer, an incident that sparked protests in Minneapolis and cities across the nation.

The Trump administration goals to ramp up deportations and has elevated the variety of migrants in detention.

As of January 7, ICE statistics confirmed that the company was detaining 69,000 folks. The numbers had been anticipated to rise following an enormous ICE funding infusion handed by the U.S. Congress final 12 months.

At least 30 folks died in ICE custody in 2025, the very best stage in 20 years, company figures confirmed.

Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, referred to as the excessive variety of deaths “truly staggering” and urged the administration to shutter detention facilities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

The Cuban detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died on January 3 in Camp East Montana, a detention web site opened by the Trump administration on the grounds of Fort Bliss in Texas.

ICE stated it was investigating the dying of Lunas, including that he had turn out to be disruptive, was positioned in isolation, and later present in misery. He was pronounced useless by emergency medical technicians, ICE stated.

The two Honduran males – Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, 42, and Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz, 68 – died in space hospitals in Houston and Indio, California, on January 5 and 6, respectively, each following heart-related points, ICE stated.

Parady La, a Cambodian man, 46, died on January 9 following extreme drug withdrawal signs on the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, ICE stated. The administration started utilizing that house final 12 months, it stated.

The Trump administration has tremendously diminished the variety of migrants launched from detention on humanitarian grounds, driving some to simply accept deportation.