ICE Detention Deaths Hit 20-Year High as Internal Ratings Climb Under Trump Administration

Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities holding detainees are receiving record-high internal grades for health and safety at the same time deaths in ICE custody have reached levels not seen in two decades, according to an investigation released this week by the Project on Government Oversight.

The number of facilities ICE rated “superior” — the agency’s highest inspection grade — has tripled since 2024 under the Trump administration. That expansion of top ratings coincided with weakened detention standards, fewer inspections, and 2025 becoming the deadliest year in ICE custody since 2004.

Four people have died at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California since August 2025, the most of any facility in the country during that span, the investigation found.

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The ratings are issued by ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight. The same office also tracks “deficiencies” — violations of ICE detention standards that can cost a facility its federal funding if it fails inspections twice in a row.

“Despite this provision — or perhaps because of it — detention facilities rarely received failing grades from inspectors between fiscal years 2022 and 2026,” the Project on Government Oversight investigators wrote.

Complaints from detainees, disability rights groups, a federal judge, and the California Justice Department have described a pattern of bad water, untrained staff, and slow response times to acute and chronic medical conditions at detention facilities. For-profit companies operating the facilities, including GEO Group and CoreCivic, routinely point to ICE’s federal detention standards as a response to those complaints.

ICE is holding a record number of people — at least 65,000 as of July 11. Even as that custody population has climbed, the number of violations ICE found at its facilities dropped 68% between 2022 and 2025.

The Project on Government Oversight describes itself as a nonpartisan investigative nonprofit. It said ICE did not respond to multiple interview attempts. CalMatters, which published the investigation, is seeking comment from ICE.

The Breakdown

• ICE’s internal inspection system rates detention facilities on health and safety. The highest grade, “superior,” has been awarded to three times as many facilities since 2024.
• Those improved ratings came as ICE weakened detention standards and conducted fewer inspections.
• 2025 was the deadliest year in ICE custody since 2004. Four people died at California’s Adelanto facility alone since August 2025.
• Violations found at ICE facilities dropped 68% between 2022 and 2025, even as the number of people in custody hit a record high of at least 65,000.
• A facility that fails inspections twice in a row can lose federal funding — but facilities “rarely received failing grades” during the period reviewed.

What This Means for You

ICE’s detention and enforcement operations are federal executive-branch policy — set and overseen by the President and the appointed officials who run the Department of Homeland Security. The pattern documented here — more deaths, higher grades, fewer violations found — occurred under the current administration. If you’re weighing a presidential vote, or a vote for any federal office with oversight of DHS or ICE, this is the operational record under the current policy.

What to Watch

ICE has not responded to the investigation. Whether it does, and what it says if it does, is the first test — does the administration dispute the death count, the inspection-grade trend, or the claim that standards weakened? Or does it defend the record as is?

The larger question is whether this pattern continues. If the number of people in ICE custody keeps climbing while the inspection system continues to find fewer violations and award more top grades, that raises questions about how the oversight system is functioning.

Finally: Adelanto is in California, not Fresno — but ICE operates in the Central Valley, and any pattern in the detention system affects people detained anywhere in it, including people picked up locally. If you know someone who has been in ICE custody, or if your community has seen ICE enforcement activity, the conditions described in this investigation are the conditions that system is operating under right now.