‘There Must Be Accountability,’ Says Jayapal in Response to 50+ ICE Detainee Deaths
“This is unprecedented and further proof that ICE and their private, for-profit prison contractors should not be sent another cent of taxpayer dollars.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) speaks at a rally in Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington, DC on May 1, 2025.
(Photo by Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jun 08, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Monday demanded accountability for the Trump administration officials responsible for the “unprecedented” number of people who have died while detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“Yesterday, I was notified of the 50th death in ICE custody since Trump returned to office,” Jayapal (D-Wash.)—the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement—said on social media. “This is unprecedented and further proof that ICE and their private, for-profit prison contractors should not be sent another cent of taxpayer dollars. There must be accountability.”
As Detained Immigrants Strike Against ‘Chaos and Cruelty,’ Advocates Demand ‘Not Another Dime for ICE’
‘What I Witnessed and Experienced Today Was Shameful,‘ Says US Senator Pepper Sprayed by ICE
According to ICE’s public database, 51 people have died while detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency during Trump’s second term, including two people who were killed in a sniper attack on an ICE administrative and processing center in Dallas. At least 10 of the deaths were men who killed themselves, according to an Associated Press investigation published late last month.
ICE recently announced it would stop reporting the deaths of people recently released from ICE detention. The reporting policy, enacted in 2021, was meant to assure accountability and prevent the agency from offloading severely ill detainees.
Many of the deaths were preventable, say experts who point to systemic understaffing and DHS policy choices that weaken detainee care and employee oversight.
Jayapal’s call comes as ICE detainees across the nation are resisting abuse in concentration centers across the nation, through hunger strikes and other civil disobedience, as well as via lawsuits.
Hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey—which is operated by prison profiteer GEO Group—are participating in a hunger and labor strike over unsanitary conditions, inedible food, poor medical care, and prolonged detention, while federal agents have attacked people outside the facility including protesters and a sitting US senator.
Similar strikes and other acts of resistance are either ongoing or recently occurred at Adelanto Processing Center and its Desert View Annex in California, North Lake Processing Center in Michigan, Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania—all run by GEO Group—and other lockups. Detainees who participate in hunger strikes or speak to reporters say they have been placed in solitary confinement and subjected to other retaliation.
Despite—some critics say because of—reports of widespread abuses, DHS recently shut down its Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), which was created by an act of Congress signed into law during Trump’s first term amid rampant systemic abuse of migrants including detainee deaths, family separation, and severe overcrowding. OIDO had the power to receive detainee complaints, investigate alleged abuse or misconduct, inspect detention facilities, and report systemic problems to DHS leaders and Congress.
Jayapal, who is an immigrant, has been one of Congress’ most vocal critics of Trump’s xenophobic immigration crackdown. She was a leading voice for the replacement of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and has visited several ICE detention centers—and been blocked from conducting official oversight duties at one of them.
She also introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, a proposal “to end the use of private, for-profit detention centers, end the use of mandatory detention, update and implement robust minimum requirements for care, and conduct urgent oversight at other facilities across the country.”
Last week, Jayapal highlighted a report published by the office of DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari that detailed violations of food safety and medical care standards, excessive use of force, and other improprieties at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, which is run by prison profiteer LaSalle Corrections.
“This DHS OIG report details what we have heard from detained immigrants across the country—that these detention centers have violated numerous required standards and are putting people’s health and safety at serious risk,” Jayapal said in a statement. “And this report verifies what many immigrants have stated is happening at these private, for-profit detention centers across the country.”
“DHS must immediately withdraw funding from the numerous detention centers that consistently do not meet the minimum required standards for housing immigrant detainees,” the congresswoman added. “For those that remain, DHS must require facilities to take immediate corrective action and engage in serious oversight of these for-profit prison operators who are prioritizing their cash coffers over meeting basic health and safety standards.”
“This is unprecedented and further proof that ICE and their private, for-profit prison contractors should not be sent another cent of taxpayer dollars.”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) speaks at a rally in Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington, DC on May 1, 2025.
(Photo by Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
Jun 08, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Monday demanded accountability for the Trump administration officials responsible for the “unprecedented” number of people who have died while detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“Yesterday, I was notified of the 50th death in ICE custody since Trump returned to office,” Jayapal (D-Wash.)—the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement—said on social media. “This is unprecedented and further proof that ICE and their private, for-profit prison contractors should not be sent another cent of taxpayer dollars. There must be accountability.”
As Detained Immigrants Strike Against ‘Chaos and Cruelty,’ Advocates Demand ‘Not Another Dime for ICE’
‘What I Witnessed and Experienced Today Was Shameful,‘ Says US Senator Pepper Sprayed by ICE
According to ICE’s public database, 51 people have died while detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agency during Trump’s second term, including two people who were killed in a sniper attack on an ICE administrative and processing center in Dallas. At least 10 of the deaths were men who killed themselves, according to an Associated Press investigation published late last month.
ICE recently announced it would stop reporting the deaths of people recently released from ICE detention. The reporting policy, enacted in 2021, was meant to assure accountability and prevent the agency from offloading severely ill detainees.
Many of the deaths were preventable, say experts who point to systemic understaffing and DHS policy choices that weaken detainee care and employee oversight.
Jayapal’s call comes as ICE detainees across the nation are resisting abuse in concentration centers across the nation, through hunger strikes and other civil disobedience, as well as via lawsuits.
Hundreds of detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey—which is operated by prison profiteer GEO Group—are participating in a hunger and labor strike over unsanitary conditions, inedible food, poor medical care, and prolonged detention, while federal agents have attacked people outside the facility including protesters and a sitting US senator.
Similar strikes and other acts of resistance are either ongoing or recently occurred at Adelanto Processing Center and its Desert View Annex in California, North Lake Processing Center in Michigan, Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania—all run by GEO Group—and other lockups. Detainees who participate in hunger strikes or speak to reporters say they have been placed in solitary confinement and subjected to other retaliation.
Despite—some critics say because of—reports of widespread abuses, DHS recently shut down its Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), which was created by an act of Congress signed into law during Trump’s first term amid rampant systemic abuse of migrants including detainee deaths, family separation, and severe overcrowding. OIDO had the power to receive detainee complaints, investigate alleged abuse or misconduct, inspect detention facilities, and report systemic problems to DHS leaders and Congress.
Jayapal, who is an immigrant, has been one of Congress’ most vocal critics of Trump’s xenophobic immigration crackdown. She was a leading voice for the replacement of former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and has visited several ICE detention centers—and been blocked from conducting official oversight duties at one of them.
She also introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, a proposal “to end the use of private, for-profit detention centers, end the use of mandatory detention, update and implement robust minimum requirements for care, and conduct urgent oversight at other facilities across the country.”
Last week, Jayapal highlighted a report published by the office of DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari that detailed violations of food safety and medical care standards, excessive use of force, and other improprieties at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, which is run by prison profiteer LaSalle Corrections.
“This DHS OIG report details what we have heard from detained immigrants across the country—that these detention centers have violated numerous required standards and are putting people’s health and safety at serious risk,” Jayapal said in a statement. “And this report verifies what many immigrants have stated is happening at these private, for-profit detention centers across the country.”
“DHS must immediately withdraw funding from the numerous detention centers that consistently do not meet the minimum required standards for housing immigrant detainees,” the congresswoman added. “For those that remain, DHS must require facilities to take immediate corrective action and engage in serious oversight of these for-profit prison operators who are prioritizing their cash coffers over meeting basic health and safety standards.”
Robert Davis
June 7, 2026
RAW STORY
Demonstrators face off with federal law enforcement during ongoing protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
A Democratic Senator revealed the horrifying conditions inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, during a new interview with Mother Jones.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) visited ICE's Delaney Hall over the weekend, where he was given a guided tour of the facility. Inside, Kim said he witnessed women trying to get one of their friends help while the person was having a medical episode. Kim added that the guards at the facility seem to have little regard for the rights of the immigrants who are locked up there.
“They refused to let me talk to any detainees,” Kim told Mother Jones as he exited Delaney Hall. “They told me that if I were to speak to any detainees, the oversight tour would immediately be cut off and stopped. This is impeding my ability to lawfully do the oversight that I’m legally allowed to do, and I told them I thought this was a deep breach of my responsibilities and what the American people are demanding.”
The scene in the women's unit seemed to stick with Kim as well.
“They’re just frantic and waving and pointing, and I saw the woman curled up on the bed. I asked, ‘What is happening here?’" Kim said, adding that the guards didn’t answer.
He added that people who have been moved to medical units have no way of contacting their families and loved ones. ICE won't share their location either, citing security concerns.
“They aren’t telling her family where she is, which hospital she’s in. They’re saying it’s a security problem,” Kim said. “Can you imagine if your loved one was in a hospital and you don’t know what hospital they’re in, and then you’re told to just file some bureaucratic papers, and cross your fingers that they’re going to get back to you?”
Demonstrators face off with federal law enforcement during ongoing protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside the Delaney Hall detention center, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., June 6, 2026. REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
A Democratic Senator revealed the horrifying conditions inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, during a new interview with Mother Jones.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) visited ICE's Delaney Hall over the weekend, where he was given a guided tour of the facility. Inside, Kim said he witnessed women trying to get one of their friends help while the person was having a medical episode. Kim added that the guards at the facility seem to have little regard for the rights of the immigrants who are locked up there.
“They refused to let me talk to any detainees,” Kim told Mother Jones as he exited Delaney Hall. “They told me that if I were to speak to any detainees, the oversight tour would immediately be cut off and stopped. This is impeding my ability to lawfully do the oversight that I’m legally allowed to do, and I told them I thought this was a deep breach of my responsibilities and what the American people are demanding.”
The scene in the women's unit seemed to stick with Kim as well.
“They’re just frantic and waving and pointing, and I saw the woman curled up on the bed. I asked, ‘What is happening here?’" Kim said, adding that the guards didn’t answer.
He added that people who have been moved to medical units have no way of contacting their families and loved ones. ICE won't share their location either, citing security concerns.
“They aren’t telling her family where she is, which hospital she’s in. They’re saying it’s a security problem,” Kim said. “Can you imagine if your loved one was in a hospital and you don’t know what hospital they’re in, and then you’re told to just file some bureaucratic papers, and cross your fingers that they’re going to get back to you?”
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