At least 20 people dead in ICE custody in 2025

 

At least 20 people have died in ICE custody under the Trump regime in 2025. It’s the deadliest year for ICE prisons in over two decades.1  One of the worst is in Broadview, IL. A new lawsuit describes horrific conditions at the Broadview prison: “There is blood, other bodily fluids, and hair in the sinks and on the walls.” Hundreds of people are pushed into cells “like a pile of fish” and “treated worse than animals.”2 Trump’s violent “Operation Midway Blitz” invasion in Chicago is rounding up families and neighbors by the hundreds and throwing them into unsafe conditions at the Broadview detention center.3 We’re demanding an immediate Congressional investigation into the horrific, inhuman conditions at Trump’s ICE prisons from Broadview to Alligator Alcatraz. Will you make a donation to help support our work, including our efforts to investigate and close deadly ICE prisons? If you've stored your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation to Demand Progress will process immediately. DONATE $12 DONATE $17 DONATE $23 DONATE $27 DONATE $35 DONATE OTHER AMOUNT The Broadview, IL prison is just one part of a nationwide network of extrajudicial blacksites and torture centers. The Trump admin’s abuses at the notorious Alligator Alcatraz are shocking. Excessive heat, unlivable sanitation conditions, 30+ people in a cage with 3 toilets, some inoperable, with drinking spigots connected to toilet tanks.4 After observing the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz, Rep. Maxwell Frost said, “What I saw made my heart sink.” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz called it an “internment camp.”5 The Miami Herald reported that ICE has disappeared over 1,000 people taken into custody at Alligator Alcatraz. Families are panicked and lawyers don’t know where the detainees are.6 Senator Jon Ossoff documented hundreds of human rights abuses at ICE prisons nationwide, including pregnant women sleeping on floors in overcrowded intake cells and children denied medical attention.7 Together with Sen. Raphael Warnock, he has pressed the administration about the alarming rate of deaths and abuse at ICE prisons.8 As Trump deploys greater numbers of violent, masked ICE gangs to take more people into custody, we need our elected leaders to launch a full-blown investigation into ICE prisons and end these abuses NOW. We’ve mobilized tens of thousands of people to demand an investigation into the horrific conditions at ICE prisons, and we need to ramp up this effort immediately. Will you donate today to support our work, including our fight to shut down Alligator Alcatraz and ICE’s network of torture prisons? With gratitude, The team at Demand Progress Action

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Sources:

1. NPR, "It's the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in decades; next year could be worse,” October 23, 2025.
2. Common Dreams, "New Lawsuit Details ‘Horrific and Inhumane Conditions’ in ICE Broadview Facility,” October 31, 2025.
3. Ibid.
4. USA Today, "'Help me!' Democrats decry 'vile' conditions at 'Alligator Alcatraz' immigrant prison,” July 14, 2025.
5. Ibid.
6. Miami Herald, "Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site,” September 16, 2025.
7. NBC News, "Hundreds of alleged human rights abuses in immigrant detention, report finds,” August 5, 2025.
8. Sen. Warnock Press Release, "Warnock, Ossoff Press Trump Administration Over Deaths in ICE Custody,” September 23, 2025.

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