Who is counted

The VoICE Project counts a death when the answer to one question is yes: would this person be alive if not for ICE?

We count deaths from January 20, 2025 forward. We count citizens and noncitizens alike. We count people whose names the government has not released, and we hold their place until the name surfaces.

The test

A death is included when it meets two conditions.

But for ICE

An ICE action set in motion the events that ended the person's life. That action can be an arrest, a detention, an enforcement operation, a release, a deportation, the detention of someone they depended on, or the credible threat of any of these.

Foreseeable harm

The death is the kind of harm that action made predictable: neglect or violence in custody, injury during an operation, the danger a person fled when they were sent back to it, the loss of a caregiver, or despair under confinement or the threat of removal.

Most deaths on this site meet both conditions plainly. Where a death meets the first but the link is less direct, such as an accident or a natural disaster after deportation, we still include it. We say so on the person's page, and we count it separately in our statistics so no one can say we padded the number.

Categories

Every person on the wall is placed in one category, based on where they were and what ICE had done when they died.

In custody

During arrest or transport, before reaching a facility. This includes deaths in vehicles, during apprehension, and in hospitals after an injury in custody.

In detention

While held in any facility on ICE's behalf: ICE-owned centers, private contractors, county jails under contract, federal prisons, and temporary camps. This includes deaths in hospitals after transfer from detention.

During an operation

Anyone killed during or as a direct result of an ICE enforcement operation, including bystanders, U.S. citizens, and people fleeing agents.

After release

Deaths caused by illness, injury, or neglect in custody that end a person's life after ICE lets them go.

After deportation

Deaths in the country a person was removed to, or on the way there. This includes people killed by the violence they fled.

Family separation

Deaths of people who depended on someone ICE detained or deported: a child left without a parent, a patient left without a caregiver.

Despair

Suicides outside ICE custody driven by an ICE action or its credible threat. Suicides inside custody or detention are counted in those categories.

Why suicides count

The law already recognizes that despair can be caused. In Commonwealth v. Carter, a Massachusetts court held a person responsible for another's suicide because her conduct drove it. A suicide does not break the chain of responsibility when someone else built the conditions that led to it. We apply the same principle to an agency that isolates the sick, cuts people off from their families, and makes removal feel inevitable.

What it takes to reach the wall

Every name starts on the Memorials in process list. It moves to the wall when we can document all of the following:

Identity

Who the person was, or a record that the name has been withheld.

Death

An official record, or at least two independent, credible reports.

The link to ICE

An official record, a court filing, credible reporting, or a family account backed by a second source.

Every claim

A citation. Anything not established by a record is marked as alleged.

Sources we use

ICE detainee death reports and press releases, medical examiner and autopsy records, court filings, police records, FOIA releases, reporting by established outlets, video, and statements from families and witnesses. A family's account is labeled as theirs. We do not publish a claim that rests only on an unverified social media post or an anonymous tip.

When the official record and a family's account disagree, we show both and say which is which.

Families

Where we can, we reach out to a family before a memorial goes up and give them time to respond. We will reshape a story at a family's request. We will not remove a person from the record.

Our count

Our number is a floor, not an estimate. The government releases these deaths late, partially, or not at all, and the true toll is higher than anything we can document.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell us. Write to the address below with what needs fixing and where you found it. We correct errors and note significant changes on the page.