Seven Die in ICE Custody in December, Four Within Four Days, Deadliest Year Since 2004

Seven people die in ICE custody in December 2025, with four deaths occurring within a four-day span from December 12-15, making it the deadliest month of Trump’s second term. The deaths occur as ICE holds a record 68,000+ people in detention, and 2025 becomes the deadliest year for ICE custody since 2004 with at least 30-32 total deaths.

Among the dead: Jean Wilson Brutus (41, Haiti) died December 12 at University Hospital Newark after a medical emergency, having been in custody only one day. Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir (46, Eritrea), an imam, died after 215 days of detention at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. Nenko Stanev Gantchev (56, Bulgaria) died December 15 at North Lake Processing Center in Michigan. Dalvin Francisco Rodriguez (39, Nicaragua) was found without a pulse December 4 and pronounced dead 10 days later.

Human Rights Watch notes that “access to medical care has been extremely limited” in ICE facilities. ICE’s Detainee Death Reporting page has not been updated since October, making tracking difficult and obscuring the full scope of deaths.

The deaths are directly correlated with the mass expansion of detention under Trump’s deportation quotas—the administration’s policy of arresting 1,100+ people daily has overwhelmed detention capacity, leading to inadequate medical care, overcrowding, and preventable deaths. Nearly half of those detained have no criminal record beyond immigration status.