Georgia senators demand answers on more than a dozen deaths in immigration detention

Georgia’s Democratic senators are asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to provide more information on recent deaths in immigration detention centers, including the conditions of detainees.

Since President Trump took office, 15 people have died in immigration detention, 10 of those deaths occurred between January and June, Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock wrote in a letter shared exclusively with NPR. The senators say that is the highest rate in the first six months of any year publicly available.

“Whatever our views on border enforcement, immigration enforcement, immigration policy, I think the overwhelming majority of the American people does not want detainees abused while they’re in U.S. custody,” Ossoff told NPR in an interview.

The Homeland Security Department is rushing to expand detention space and increase the rates of arrests after Congress provided billions of dollars in additional funding. Across the country, reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and issues with food and healthcare access have been the product of a focus to make more arrests. NPR has reached out to DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.

The letter follows a report Ossoff released in July that alleges human rights violations occurred at immigration detention centers, including mistreatment of children, citizens and pregnant women. DHS broadly refuted the claims.

Earlier this year, ICE officials announced the agency was out of detention space. By the summer, over 50,000 people were in detention but ICE only had 46,000 beds.

Since then, ICE has announced expanded detention space through the use of military bases and state partnerships in Indiana, Nebraska, and Louisiana.

But the rapid expansion and use of other facilities has drawn criticism from immigration advocates and Democrats.

Concern over conditions in detention also comes after DHS cut jobs in the oversight divisions focused on civil rights. This included widespread cuts within the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which conducts oversight of ICE and Customs and Border Protection detention.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons was asked about deaths in custody and delays in reports during a Congressional oversight hearing in May.

“We do conduct a thorough investigation of all of those,” Lyons said, adding that he would ensure that information on deaths in custody were publicly available online in accordance with Congressional mandates. “ICE is dedicated to transparency.”

In the letter, Ossoff and Warnock reiterate the concern of delayed reporting of death.

“ICE is failing to meet its own standards for reporting detainee deaths, thereby hindering Congressional oversight efforts and leaving families in the dark as to their loved ones’ fates,” they wrote, adding that ICE guidance requires the agency to post an interim notice of any detainee death to ICE’s website “within 48 hours,” and directs that “every effort should be made to post the interim notice” sooner.

Most recently, ICE issued press releases confirming the death of a Mexican national on Aug. 31. The public statement was released two days after his death. Another detainee died on Sept. 8, and the release was issued seven days later. Neither is yet on an official ICE detainee death tracker. Another man, who was detained by ICE, died on Thursday in Nassau County, according to local reports.