The Numbers Don't Lie

At least 10 ICE detainees have died by suicide since January 2025. Seven of those deaths have occurred since October — already the most suicide deaths in a single fiscal year in ICE's two-decade history, according to an Associated Press investigation.

For context: ICE has typically recorded one or zero such deaths per year.

The suicides account for nearly a fifth of all 51 deaths in ICE custody since Trump took office.

Who These Men Were

All 10 were men. Nine were Hispanic, from four different countries. One was a Chinese citizen. Their average age was 32 years old.

President Trump has described deportation targets as the "worst of the worst." The AP found that seven of the 10 had no record of violent crimes in the United States.

The Case That Started It

Brayan Rayo Garzon, a 22-year-old Colombian national, was being held at the Phelps County Jail in Rolla, Missouri when he killed himself on April 7, 2025.

He was on day four of COVID-19 isolation. He had asked for mental health treatment — that request was put off, according to records reviewed by the AP. Staff had also banned his nightly phone call to his mother, citing illness-prevention protocols.

He wrote handwritten notes in Spanish begging to speak with her. "I feel in my heart that she's very worried about me," he wrote. A guard took the note and walked away. Within an hour, he was found unconscious in his cell.

His mother, Adriana Garzon, now keeps his photo in her St. Louis apartment. It reads in Spanish: "On earth, my warrior; in heaven, my angel."

Expert Assessment

Dr. Sanjay Basu, an epidemiologist at the University of California–San Francisco who co-authored a peer-reviewed study on ICE detainee mortality, told the AP: "Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective. This is one of those alarming, sudden increases."

What's Driving It

The Trump administration ordered a massive surge in ICE arrests and detentions beginning in January 2025. The detainee population expanded rapidly — but the infrastructure to house and care for those detainees did NOT keep pace.

Many detainees are being held in county jails and for-profit detention facilities not designed or staffed for long-term immigration detention. Fox News separately reported scrutiny over substandard conditions at a New Jersey for-profit detention center — adding a detail worth noting: taxpayer money is flowing to private contractors who are failing on basic duty-of-care standards.

The Accountability Gap

ICE has NOT responded substantively to the AP's findings, according to reporting from NBC New York and the Boston Globe. The agency has not named which facilities failed to provide mental health screenings. It has not identified which contractors are responsible. It has not announced any policy changes.

If 10 American soldiers died by suicide at a military base at this rate over the same period, there would be a Congressional investigation, a command shakeup, and wall-to-wall coverage from every network. These men were in U.S. government custody. The U.S. government was responsible for their safety.

You can support aggressive border enforcement AND demand that people in government custody don't die preventable deaths. The Trump administration expanded a detention system faster than it could manage it. Contractors took the money. Men died alone in cells, begging for a phone call.

Somebody needs to answer for that. By name.