UN rights chief urges probe into ICE detention deaths

The United Nations’ top human rights official called Friday for prompt independent investigations into deaths in U.S. immigration custody, escalating international scrutiny of the Trump administration’s rapidly expanding detention system.

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, allegations of force against detainees and the use of solitary confinement require “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations.”

“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 said in a statement.

His remarks followed the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s announcement that it will conduct two investigations: one into deaths in ICE custody and another into use of force against detainees in immigration jails. The watchdog said it opened the deaths inquiry “because of an increase of detainee deaths in ICE custody each year since fiscal year 2022.” It will examine whether “systemic factors, policies, or processes” contributed to deaths between Oct. 1, 2021, and March 31 of this year.

Human Rights Watch, in a report released this week, alleged “violations of ICE policy and international human rights law” in detention deaths. The group said mortality in ICE custody is at its highest level in more than a decade and calculated that 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump’s second administration. Al Jazeera reported that the detainees ranged in age from 19 to 75 and came from 20 nationalities, citing the Human Rights Watch report.

Al Jazeera, citing U.S. government statistics, reported that at least 19 immigrants have died in detention so far this year. It said the reported June 4 death of Mamuka Artmeladze, a Georgian man held in Louisiana, brought this year’s total to 19, compared with 33 last year and 11 in 2024.

A separate University of California, Los Angeles Law Behind Bars data project found detention deaths have reached the highest levels since 2004, when 32 people died in DHS custody, The Guardian reported.

The Trump administration has expanded immigration arrests and detention as part of its mass deportation campaign. Early in the administration, senior officials set a goal of 3,000 arrests per day. Trump wrote on social media Friday that his administration has the “Highest Average Daily Arrest Rate by ICE and CBP, including Total Detention, with Final Orders of Removal, than any other president, by far!”

The U.N. said the administration has opened new detention centers and is considering further expansion that would increase capacity to detain up to 90,000 people nationwide. About 60,000 people are now detained by ICE, and most ICE detention centers are run by private prison companies, The Guardian reported.

Türk also raised concern about solitary confinement, saying it worsens detainees’ vulnerability. The U.N. has previously said solitary confinement lasting more than 15 days can amount to torture. Al Jazeera reported that five deaths recorded in 2026 were classified as suicides.

“All these factors exacerbate vulnerability and raise serious concerns as to whether some of these deaths in ICE custody could have been prevented,” Türk said.

He said immigration detention should be an “exceptional measure of last resort” and should generally be avoided for people with significant medical or mental health conditions and pregnant women. Children, he said, should not be held in immigration detention.

DHS denied that deaths have spiked. “ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that all ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards,” a spokesperson said Friday, adding that detainees receive meals, water, blankets, medical treatment and opportunities to communicate with relatives and lawyers.

“There has been NO spike in deaths,” the spokesperson said. “Consistent with data over the last decade, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population.”

Human Rights Watch criticized ICE’s public reporting. “ICE so severely limits the information it provides to Congress, families and the public that oversight is nearly impossible,” said Dr. Katherine Peeler, a report co-author and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. “In the cases where we do have access to ICE and outside hospital records, we are seeing a breathtaking breach of the duty of care.”

Türk urged “the full restoration and strengthening of independent oversight mechanisms for immigration detention.”