WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seven people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term, as immigration arrests spike and detention centers struggle with overcrowding and allegations of systemic medical neglect, according to a report by Nation of Change.
Three of the deaths occurred in April alone, highlighting what immigrant rights advocates call a crisis of accountability inside the federal detention system. ICE’s detained population has swelled to nearly 50,000—up 21 percent since mid-December—under Trump’s expanded immigration enforcement directive.
The most recent known death was that of 44-year-old Marie Ange Blaise, a Haitian woman who died April 25 at the Broward Transitional Center in Florida. Blaise, detained since February, had been transferred between facilities in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Louisiana, and Florida. On the day of her death, she complained of chest pain for hours. According to U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress, “They gave her some pills and told her to go lie down. Unfortunately, Marie never woke up. Her loved ones deserve answers. They deserve accountability.”
ICE issued a statement saying Blaise “received comprehensive medical care,” a near-identical response given in two other April deaths: 27-year-old Colombian national Brayan Garzón-Rayo in Missouri and 55-year-old Vietnamese national Nhon Nguc Nguyen in Texas.
Human rights groups and attorneys contest ICE’s assurances. Carly Pérez Fernández of Detention Watch Network said Trump’s “cruel, multi-layered detention expansion plan is exacerbating a system that is already proven to be inherently inhumane.”
The rise in detentions follows the implementation of the Laiken Riley Act, passed under the Biden administration in 2024, which mandates detention for undocumented individuals arrested for minor offenses such as shoplifting or DUI. “Parole is over,” said Katie Blankenship of Sanctuary of the South, describing how the law has virtually ended discretionary releases.
Florida’s Krome North Service Processing Center has become a flashpoint. Following viral videos and news reports showing overcrowding, Rep. Frederica Wilson toured the facility and called it a “tent city.” ICE confirmed it had erected a large tent structure on the property, claiming it meets federal standards and includes air conditioning. Blankenship dismissed the changes as “lipstick on a pig to get the press and members of Congress off their back.”
One of the most alarming deaths occurred in February, when 44-year-old Maksym Chernyak, a Ukrainian man who had entered the U.S. under humanitarian parole, died after suffering six seizures while awaiting hospital transfer from Krome. ICE documents confirmed Chernyak was “intoxicated, diaphoretic, uncoordinated, and intermittently unresponsive.” He was eventually diagnosed with a hemorrhagic stroke and declared brain dead.
Rather than address these incidents through increased oversight, the Trump administration recently shut down three internal oversight offices within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that previously investigated civil rights violations in detention. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the closures, saying the offices “often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”
The move has prompted legal action. On April 24, human rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging the closures, arguing that Congress created these offices to monitor abuse. California Attorney General Rob Bonta also issued a warning, noting that the state’s own reviews of federally contracted detention facilities remain “especially critical” amid efforts to eliminate oversight.
At the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington—operated by the GEO Group—conditions have sparked six hunger strikes in four months. Rufina Reyes of La Resistencia, a local immigrant rights organization, said detainees report medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, use of solitary confinement, and blocked access to legal services. “We also know there are more people being deported each week and more people arriving each week,” Reyes told Nation of Change.
A report from the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights showed that from 2014 to 2024, only two of 157 reports of abuse or assault filed by detained immigrants in Tacoma were prosecuted—and both involved cases in which jail staff were the victims.
Reyes emphasized the climate of fear among immigrant families. “We know about one family… that hasn’t left their house because they have a lot of fear,” she said. “More than anything, we ask politicians to visit the detention centers and call for them to be shut down.”
