politics
Six Die in California Immigration Detention Centers Amid 162% Population Increase
A California Department of Justice report released Friday documents the highest annual death toll in seven years of state inspections, with six deaths recorded in the past year after the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign more than doubled facility populations.
May 15, 1:18 PM·3m read2 sources
Los Angeles TimesAudio version
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Six people died in California immigration detention centers over the past year, the highest death toll since the state began conducting inspections seven years ago, according to a 175-page report released Friday by the California Department of Justice.
The deaths come as the Trump administration mass deportation campaign drove up the population inside California detention centers by more than 150%. At the time of the investigators’ visits, 6,028 people were held in immigration detention in California.
That figure represented a 162% increase from the 2,300 held during inspections in 2023. In 2024, there were zero deaths in California detention centers, according to both the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Attorney General’s office. Four of the deaths occurred at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County.
Two people died at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico. In all four Adelanto cases, families of the deceased allege the facility failed to provide adequate medical care. The Department of Homeland Security called the allegations in the lawsuit about conditions inside Adelanto false.
“ICE is regularly audited and inspected by external agencies to ensure that ICE facilities comply with performance-based national detention standards,” a then-spokesperson for DHS said when the lawsuit was filed. Nationally, 18 people have died in ICE facilities this year. Since the start of the Trump administration, 48 people have died in detention.
9 per 100,000 people, nearly seven times higher than fiscal year 2023 levels. State inspectors interviewed 194 detainees from more than 120 countries between July and November 2025. Last year, inspectors focused on lapses in mental health care across the six facilities operating in California in the early months of the second Trump administration.
