Surge of Suicide Cases in ICE Detention Centres Logs Over 1,000—28 Serious Self-Harm Cases in One Year

A pregnant detainee smashing her head against a wall. A man swallowing a razor blade. Another drinking cleaning chemicals inside a locked immigration facility. The growing number of suicide attempts and psychiatric emergencies inside US immigration detention centres is exposing a system under mounting strain as the Trump administration expands mass detention policies across the country.

Emergency call logs obtained by NBC News reveal more than 1,000 requests for medical or police assistance over the past year from six immigration detention centres in states including Texas, Georgia, California and Michigan.

Among them were at least 28 serious self-harm incidents involving detainees in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE.

The figures arrive alongside another deeply uncomfortable statistic. Five detainees have already died by suicide in ICE custody this year, the highest number recorded in two decades, despite 2026 not yet reaching its halfway point.

Pressure Inside Detention Centres Is Intensifying

The incidents are unfolding as ICE detention numbers surge sharply under President Donald Trump's second administration.

ICE is now holding close to 60,000 detainees nationwide, compared with roughly 34,000 during the Biden administration. At the same time, detainees are remaining in custody for longer periods, averaging about 50 days compared with 36 previously.

What makes the situation increasingly volatile, according to lawyers and health experts, is not only overcrowding but uncertainty. Many detainees reportedly have little sense of when they may be released, deported or transferred.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an immigration attorney based in Maryland, said despair inside detention facilities has become more visible as immigration proceedings drag on for months.

'The issue is not just the terrible god-awful conditions in the detention centres, it's the feeling of not knowing when or even if people will get out of those conditions,' he told NBC News.

That sense of indefinite confinement matters. Mental health specialists say prolonged uncertainty is often a major trigger for self-harm and suicidal ideation in custodial settings.

Dr Sanjay Basu of the University of California, San Francisco described the recent pattern as deeply concerning. He said spikes in self-harm cases usually signal wider psychological deterioration among detainee populations.

'If you see a spike, it indicates there is a much larger group of people suffering mental health challenges,' Basu said.

Facilities Failed Suicide Prevention Standards

Several of the deaths have raised troubling questions about whether detention centres followed ICE's own suicide prevention requirements.

The most recent suicide occurred at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, where federal inspections earlier this year found staff had failed to complete mandatory suicide prevention training. Inspectors also discovered suicidal detainees were not always being checked every 15 minutes as required under ICE policy.

In some cases, according to inspection reports, guards waited more than two hours between welfare checks.

That failure was not isolated. Since Trump's return to office, inspectors documented 19 separate breaches of suicide prevention standards across detention facilities nationwide.

ICE insists suicides remain rare within the overall detainee population. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the death rate in custody stood at 0.009 per cent as of April 30 and argued detainees often receive healthcare superior to what they previously accessed.

'For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives,' the spokesperson said.

The remark has drawn anger from immigrant advocates who argue detention conditions themselves are worsening psychological distress.

Private prison companies operating ICE facilities are also facing renewed scrutiny. Facilities linked to the emergency calls are run in part by contractors including CoreCivic and GEO Group, both long criticised by rights groups over detention conditions.

Disturbing Cases Reveal Mental Health Crisis

The emergency records contain repeated references to psychosis, suicide attempts and detainees suffering severe mental breakdowns.

At one Michigan facility, a detainee reportedly refused psychiatric medication and food for eight days before collapsing in his cell. Another detainee, identified as Gabriel Leiva, allegedly begged guards to kill him after being removed from a communal housing unit.

According to police reports cited by NBC News, Leiva was later placed in solitary confinement where he attempted to fashion a noose from his clothing.

One of the more disturbing aspects of the reporting is how quickly some detainees deteriorated after entering custody.

Victor Manuel Diaz was arrested in Minneapolis over an immigration violation and transferred to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Eight days later, ICE reported he had died by suicide.

His family disputes that conclusion.

Attorney Randall Kallinen, representing Diaz's relatives, said the family remains suspicious because Diaz appeared mentally stable during phone calls shortly before his death. A second autopsy has now been commissioned.

Meanwhile, congressional oversight appears to be weakening just as detention numbers are rising. Democratic Congressman Mike Levin recently said he was blocked from speaking directly with detainees during an unannounced visit to California's Otay Mesa detention centre unless names were submitted in advance.

'Keeping people in the dark is how we got into this mess in the first place,' Levin said.

That criticism cuts to the centre of a growing argument around ICE detention. What once operated largely outside public attention is now facing increasing scrutiny not only over immigration policy, but over whether the system itself can safely handle the scale of detention now unfolding.