Deaths in U.S. immigration detention reached 33 in 2025—the highest annual total in more than two decades—as the Trump administration rapidly expanded warehouse-converted detention facilities. According to human rights organizations analyzing the expansion, the doubling of detention system capacity through warehouse conversions is directly driving the rising death toll by creating medical care crises, staff shortages, and inadequate conditions in facilities never designed to hold large populations.
Table of Contents
- How detention deaths have accelerated
- The warehouse conversion program
- Medical neglect in converted warehouses
- Detention system expansion by the numbers
How detention deaths have accelerated
According to ice data reported by NPR, 33 people died in ICE custody in 2025, compared to 11 in 2024—a nearly threefold increase. The acceleration has continued into 2026: Human Rights Watch found that deaths now occur at a rate of one every nine days in the January 2025 to January 2026 period, compared to one death every 20 to 56 days under the prior administration.
The deaths are not random fluctuations. They follow directly from the conditions created by rapid facility expansion, medical neglect, and inadequate staffing documented in official investigations.
The warehouse conversion program
The Trump administration has allocated $38–40 billion to convert approximately 23 commercial warehouses into immigration detention facilities nationwide. Ten warehouses have already been purchased across Romulus (MI), Social Circle (GA), Hamburg (PA), Surprise (AZ), and El Paso (TX), with planned capacities ranging from 1,500 to 10,000 detainees per facility.
This is not construction of new facilities designed for detention. Instead, the program takes existing commercial buildings—warehouses built for storage or manufacturing—and rapidly converts them into detention centers. medical infrastructure, mental health services, pharmacy capabilities, and proper staffing are often added hurriedly, if at all.
Medical neglect in converted warehouses
A Government Accountability Office report on the Camp East Montana warehouse facility documented that rapid conversion led to delayed medical treatment, denied medications for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, inadequate mental health services, and at least three detainee deaths. This single facility illustrates a pattern repeated across the expanding system.
The ACLU documented more than 300 allegations of medical neglect across 33 states in newly converted warehouse facilities, including failures to provide diabetes, hypertension, seizure, and HIV medications. When a commercial warehouse housing 5,000 to 10,000 people suddenly must maintain pharmacy services, manage chronic illness, and respond to emergencies, people die from preventable causes.
Detention system expansion by the numbers
The detention system is rapidly expanding. The current system holds approximately 71,000 people, and this number is projected to rise to 96,000 to 100,000+ by November 2026, with the warehouse conversions accounting for most of the new capacity. These are not facilities that existed five years ago—they are commercial buildings being pressed into service within months.
This timeline creates fatal pressure. A purpose-built detention facility takes years to establish medical, mental health, and administrative systems. A warehouse conversion happens in weeks. Adding 25,000 new detention beds while medical infrastructure struggles to catch up is why the death rate has tripled in one year.