On June 26 Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations” into every death of a detainee at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. In a statement Türk said, “Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, must be upheld.” Türk added that immigration detention should be an “exceptional measure of last resort,” and be avoided with people with medical conditions and pregnant women. He said that children should never be held in any immigration detention centers. Türk also expressed concern over the suicide rate and the use of solitary confinement.
There have been at least 51 deaths of ICE detainees since January 2025 including at least 10 suicide, according to a June 25 report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) titled, Dying in Detention. The HRW report states, “The [death] rate is nearly four times that of the Biden administration, and more than two and a half times as high as that of the first Trump administration. January 2026 saw an approximately 140% increase in the annual mortality rate compared to the prior year.
A January 3 death at the Camp East Montana ICE facility near El Paso, Texas is being investigated as a homicide at the hands of guards of Geraldo Lunas Campos. According to a June 9 U. S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report evidence from this murder case is now “missing.”
