This week marks a new increase in deaths in ICE custody with the announcement of the death of Félix Alcorta-Rodríguez, 63, originally from Mexico, who died at the Webb County Detention Center in Laredo, Texas.

The announcement of his death comes after a new 72-page report from Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights titled “Dying in Detention: Rising Deaths” revealed the growing number of deaths in custody in detention centers.

“People are dying in ICE custody at the highest rate in many years, even taking into account the increase in the number of people detained,” said Brian Root, senior technology and human rights advisor at Human Rights Watch. “The Department of Homeland Security and Congress should act immediately to reduce the number of people detained and profoundly reform detention conditions, including ensuring access to adequate health care consistent with the United States' human rights obligations.”

According to the Texas Tribune, Rodríguez is at least the fifth person to die this year in an ICE detention center in Texas. A quarter of the national total, where at least 52 people have died since the start of President Donald Trump's administration, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said in a report published this week. That number has since increased to 53 with Rodriguez's death.

According to a statement from ICE, Rodríguez died on June 19 and was found unconscious at 9:13 p.m. m. at the Webb County Detention Center. Staff are said to have called emergency medical services and began administering first aid measures before being transported by ambulance to Laredo Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:02 p.m. For many, his death is a sad reminder of what people suffer while in detention centers.

Human Rights Watch conducted its quantitative analysis of deaths in ICE custody between October 1, 2015 and June 4, 2026, examining the evolution of the death rate during this period. Physicians for Human Rights conducted a medical analysis of the 39 deaths that occurred in ICE custody during the first year of the current Trump administration, based primarily on the limited information that is publicly available.

The organizations also examined several cases in greater depth, one of those being that of Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas, 32, who died in custody in 2025 after being diagnosed with Covid-19 and spending 12 days in isolation. To access records related to his detention, treatment and death, Vargas' family filed an access to information request in October 2025 and subsequently filed a lawsuit in December. As of early May 2026, additional information had not yet been received.

“Only a mother who has lost a child knows what I am feeling,” Batrez's mother told the organization. “I love my son, and I can't do anything.”

Another case included that of Maksym Chernyak, a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who suffered a stroke. According to the organization that investigated his death, there were delays in help, since they say he had signs before suffering the accident.

Deaths in California

In California at the Adelanto detention center, similar cases have happened such as that of Ismael Ayala-Uribe who died on September 22, 2025 due to medical negligence. After multiple complaints of pain in the rectal area, he was transferred to Victor Valley Global Medical Center, where an abscess was detected. Ayala-Uribe died before the necessary surgery could be performed.

Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights concluded that ICE does not disclose sufficient information about the circumstances surrounding deaths in its custody, leaving unanswered fundamental questions about the care received by detainees and whether it complies with international human rights standards.

The agency also often delays releasing information, apparently in violation of its own obligations, which require publicly reporting a death within 48 hours and providing more detailed information within 30 days.

“ICE so restricts the information it provides to Congress, families, and the public that effective oversight is virtually impossible,” said report co-author Dr. Katherine Peeler, associate professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and medical advisor to Physicians for Human Rights. “In cases where we have been able to access records from ICE and outside hospitals, we are seeing shocking breaches of the duty of care.”

For now, the official cause of Rodríguez's death is pending the results of the autopsy.

“Families have the right to know what happened to their loved ones in ICE custody,” Peeler said. "As long as people remain in immigration custody in the United States, the government has a legal and moral obligation to protect their lives and, when it fails to do so, the public obligation to explain what happened. It is currently failing to fulfill both responsibilities."

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