1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Congress must immediately investigate the 42 deaths that have occurred in ICE custody during this administration—one person dying every four days. This death rate is accelerating, and the systemic failures demand your oversight. Immigration violations are civil infractions, not crimes. The vast majority of the nearly 70,000 people currently detained have no criminal convictions. Yet ICE has a legal and moral responsibility to provide humane care to everyone in its custody, and it is failing catastrophically. People are dying from medical neglect, questionable use of force, and conditions that would be unacceptable in any facility. The evidence points to systemic problems. After the El Paso medical examiner ruled one death a homicide following restraint by guards at Camp East Montana, the military took over conducting autopsies at that facility—an obvious conflict of interest. Camp East Montana now holds 5,000 people in tents at an army base, operated by a private contractor that sets its own coroner notification procedures. Launch a full congressional investigation into these deaths, subpoena autopsy reports and facility records, and hold oversight hearings on ICE medical care and accountability systems. Civil detention should never be a death sentence.