U.N. official calls for investigation into ICE deaths under Trump’s regime

The raft of immigrant deaths at jails overseen by Donald Trump’s authoritarian regime has officially become an international crisis.

That disgraceful distinction came Friday, when the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights called for formal investigations into the deaths.

This year alone, there have been at least 19 deaths, according to the National Immigration Project, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported 33 deaths in 2025.

“I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement. “Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims’ families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld.”

In recent months, the Trump administration has sought to expand its capacity to lock up people targeted in its racist anti-immigrant crackdown — in an effort that has only recently shown signs of abating. Simultaneously, the administration has reportedly shut down an office that investigates abuse at ICE facilities.

U.N. officials have been sounding the alarm on the human rights crises posed by Trump’s illiberal regime with increasingly dire language. In March, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination declared that “racist hate speech” from Trump and his allies risked fueling human rights abuses and hate crimes.

“Racist hate speech by political leaders, including the President, combined with intensified immigration crackdowns in the United States, notably near schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions, has sparked grave human rights violations,” the committee said in a news release accompanying the official declaration.

The committee also laid out the stakes for migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers: “Portraying them as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the President, may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes.”

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