Human rights groups said the suicides appear to highlight the need for more oversight amid President Trump’s mass deportations.
A 33-year-old Cuban man died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Denny Adan Gonzalez is the 18th person to die in U.S. immigration custody this year, a watchdog group said Friday, amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive. He is also the fifth person to die by suicide, according to the Physicians for Human Rights, which warned of a pattern of “increasing suicide rates.”
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ICE said in a statement that Gonzalez was arrested on December 12, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on charges of “assault on a female and domestic violence.”
He was transferred to ICE custody at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia in January. He added that he had previously been deported from the United States but re-entered the country without documents in 2022.
Gonzalez was found unresponsive in his cell on Tuesday and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, ICE said. He was discovered by staff from CoreCivic, a private prison company affiliated with ICE.
In 2026, the number of deaths in ICE custody is expected to be the highest in the agency’s 22-year history, observers said. Last year already saw a record number of deaths in immigration custody, with 33 people confirmed dead.
The increase comes as immigration detentions soared under the Trump administration, reaching a high of more than 70,000 in January. That number is up from just under 40,000 people in immigration detention when Trump took office in January 2025, according to tracking by the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
Following Gonzalez’s death, Physicians for Human Rights said it “reflects a pattern of increasing suicide rates in a system where solitary confinement remains prevalent, despite ample evidence of severe psychological harm.”
Andrew Free, an attorney who tracks immigration detention, said Gonzalez was being held in solitary confinement. In its statement, ICE did not say whether Gonzalez was in isolation when she was found dead. Al Jazeera has contacted the agency for comment.
“This death did not surprise me, and that is exactly what makes it so shocking,” Katherine Peeler, a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.
“The risks are further exacerbated when people in immigration detention are isolated and already cut off from their families, communities, and social and legal supports. ICE has repeatedly obtained evidence of this through our reports, Congressional testimony, and investigations by our own oversight agencies.”
Peeler, who advises Physician Rights, previously co-authored an academic paper documenting the setbacks in oversight amid a surge in detentions under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, ICE said in a statement that it is “committed to ensuring that all detainees live in a safe, secure, and humane environment.”
“Every person in ICE custody receives a medical, dental, and mental health evaluation within 12 hours of arrival at each detention facility, a complete medical examination within 14 days of arrival in ICE custody or facility, access to medical appointments, and 24-hour emergency medical care,” the report said.
“At no time during their detention will a detained non-citizen be denied emergency medical care,” it added.
