AP Investigation Names Facilities, Finds Mental Health Failures at 3 of 9 Suicide Sites

An Associated Press investigation published May 27, 2026, documented the circumstances surrounding 10 ICE detainee suicides since January 2025 — the most in agency history — revealing a pattern of institutional failures across multiple facilities.

Brayan Rayo Garzon, 25, was four days into COVID-19 isolation at the Phelps County jail in Rolla, Missouri, when he died on April 7, 2025. His request for mental health treatment had been delayed, according to jail records reviewed by AP. Staff had also cut off his nightly calls to his mother to prevent illness from spreading.

He wrote handwritten notes in Spanish begging for a phone call. "I feel in my heart that she's very worried about me," he wrote. A guard collected the note and walked away. Within one hour, he was found unconscious. An autopsy confirmed suicide.

Facilities Failed ICE's Own Standards

At least three of the nine facilities where ICE detainees died by suicide failed to meet ICE's own detention standards, according to ICE inspection reports and jail records reviewed by AP.

ICE has established standards. ICE's own inspectors documented that facilities weren't meeting them. Detainees died at those facilities. No one has been fired.

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

Seven Deaths in One Fiscal Year

Since October 2025 alone, seven ICE detainees have died by suicide, according to AP's review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroner's rulings, and police records. That is already the most ever recorded in a single fiscal year in the agency's history. ICE previously averaged one or zero such deaths annually.

All 10 victims were men.

The detainee population has grown under Trump's enforcement surge — but the suicide rate is growing far faster than the population. This is not simply a matter of more people in custody.

DHS Awards $25 Million No-Bid Contract for Iris Scanners

The same week the AP investigation dropped, NPR reported that DHS awarded a $25 million no-bid contract to BI2 Technologies for iris scanning devices. The contract is more than five times the size of BI2's previous DHS deal, awarded last fall.

DHS is requesting more than 1,500 iris scanners and access to BI2's mobile app, including a database where iris scans are stored permanently.

DHS told NPR that ICE uses iris recognition "to assist in accurately identifying individuals encountered during immigration enforcement and removal operations." The agency is expanding surveillance hardware capacity while detainee mental health services remain inadequate.

NPR obtained a firsthand account from Norelly Mejías Cáceres, a Chicago resident who described federal agents arriving via Black Hawk helicopter, pointing guns at her family, and scanning her face while she was in tears. She is now represented by the University of Chicago Immigrants' Rights Clinic in a formal complaint against the federal government.

BI2 Technologies did not respond to NPR's multiple requests for comment.

What the Evidence Shows

The documented failures center on specific facilities that fell below ICE's own inspection standards, specific protocols that were ignored — Rayo's mental health request, his phone access — and specific bureaucratic gaps in oversight.

This is an accountability story about institutional negligence at particular sites, not a broader ideological debate.

Conservative outlets have largely ignored the story. If 10 military veterans died by suicide in federal custody at a historically unprecedented rate, sustained coverage would be standard. The principle does not change based on immigration status. Government custody means government responsibility.

The Facts

ICE has a documented, record-breaking suicide crisis in its detention facilities. Three sites failed the agency's own standards. The paper trail exists. Named researchers call it alarming. A $25 million no-bid surveillance contract just went out the door.

Federal custody carries basic care obligations. That is the law.

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If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.