ICE rescinded a 2021 Biden-era policy requiring it to report deaths occurring within 30 days of release from custody, a change critics say obscures the true human cost of mass detention by eliminating accountability for deaths caused by inadequate care during confinement.
The Change, and What It Does
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed this week that ICE will no longer be required to report, investigate, or notify Congress of deaths that occur within 30 days of a detainee’s release from custody.
The policy being rescinded was put in place by the Biden administration in 2021 specifically to close an accountability gap. Before that policy existed, ICE could release a severely ill person from detention, and when that person died days later, the death would not appear in any ICE mortality data. The 30-day window was designed to ensure that deaths caused by inadequate care during detention were counted, even if the person had technically been released before they died.
DHS framed the change as “common sense,” stating: “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur.”
Medical experts described it differently.
What Doctors Are Saying
Two physicians who have investigated ICE custody deaths criticized the policy change publicly.
Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of the New York City jail system, said the change represents “a willful act of ignoring the most serious health outcome that can reflect inadequacies in care or help track outbreaks.” He noted that tracking deaths in the period immediately following release is standard practice in jails, prisons, and immigration detention systems precisely because that window reveals failures in care that occurred before the person left.
Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California San Francisco epidemiologist who recently published an analysis of more than 270 ICE custody deaths, was direct about the statistical consequence: the policy change will “make the mortality statistics appear lower without any actual improvement in care.”
“The period immediately following release is when deaths attributable to inadequate care during confinement become apparent,” Basu said. “Missed diagnoses, interrupted medications, untreated infections, and decompensating chronic conditions don’t always kill someone while they’re still in the building.”
That is the mechanism the 2021 policy was designed to catch. It is now gone.
How Detention Kills People After Release
ICE detainees regularly die at hospitals after being transferred from detention facilities where their conditions deteriorated without adequate treatment. Those deaths, because they occur while the person is technically still in ICE custody, have generally been counted in mortality data.
But another pattern, less visible, is what the 2021 policy was addressing: people who are released from detention while severely ill, often because ICE itself decides to release them when their condition becomes critical, and who then die days or weeks later from conditions that developed or worsened during their time in custody.
A brain-dead detainee released and transferred to a hospital. A person with an untreated infection discharged with a course of over-the-counter medication. A patient with a chronic condition whose medications were interrupted for weeks. These deaths happen after release. Under the new policy, they will no longer be reported as ICE custody deaths. They will not be investigated. They will not be counted.
The numbers will look better. The care will not have changed.
The Context: A Rising Death Toll, Less Transparency
This policy change arrives against a backdrop we have covered extensively. At least 18 detainees have died since January 1, 2026, already on pace to surpass last year’s record of 33 deaths, which was the highest annual total in more than two decades. Detainees are dying by suicide at an unprecedented rate. Medical experts say many deaths from natural causes likely would have been preventable with timely care.
ICE is also simultaneously reducing transparency on the deaths it does still count. As we reported in April, the agency cut its detailed post-death reports from three-page summaries to four-paragraph notices, and its public death reporting website went dark in February. The agency described detailed public reporting as a “non-essential function.”
Now, the definition of which deaths count has been narrowed as well.
Dr. Venters put it plainly: eliminating the reporting of post-release deaths removes the ability of any outside party, whether Congress, medical researchers, journalists, or advocates, to understand whether inadequate care inside detention is causing deaths that happen to occur a few days after the door closes behind someone for the last time.
What This Means for People in Detention Right Now
ICE is currently holding more than 60,000 people across its national network of detention facilities. That number is up from approximately 40,000 at the start of Trump’s second term. The system was not built to hold this many people, and it is not adequately staffed or resourced to provide care at this scale.
For people inside that system, and for their families, the practical consequence of this policy change is not statistical. It is the removal of one more mechanism designed to hold the government accountable for what happens to people in its care.
If you or someone you know is currently in ICE detention and is not receiving adequate medical care, that situation requires urgent legal attention. As we have covered in connection with the case of Andrea Pedro Francisco, who has been detained in El Paso for months with an untreated ovarian cyst, the legal tools to compel medical care exist. They require someone on the outside to use them.
Powers Law Group represents detained individuals across Texas including in emergency medical situations. Contact us today if someone you know needs help. Phone: 713-589-2085 | Email: [email protected]
Sources
- Associated Press, ICE Will No Longer Report Deaths of Detainees Who Have Recently Been Released from Custody, June 5, 2026. https://www.apnews.com
- NBC News, ICE Ends Post-Release Death Reporting Policy, June 5, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com
- The Washington Post, ICE Quietly Changes Death Reporting Policy, June 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com
- Dr. Sanjay Basu, University of California San Francisco, Analysis of More Than 270 ICE Custody Deaths, 2026.
- KFF Health News, Deaths in ICE Custody at Highest Rate in Over Two Decades, 2026. https://www.kff.org
- Human Rights Watch, Systemic Medical Neglect in US Immigration Detention, 2025. https://www.hrw.org
- National Immigration Law Center, Rights of Immigrants in Detention, 2025. https://www.nilc.org
- Powers Law Group, ICE Immigrant Deaths Are Rising. The Government Is Releasing Less Information About Each One., April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, They Had Names: The 17 People Who Have Died in ICE Custody in 2026, April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, Nine Doctors Say She Needs Surgery Urgently. ICE Says She Doesn’t., May 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
