At a glance
At least 22 immigrants have died in ICE custody in 2026, including recent deaths at Delaney Hall detention center where detainees reported illness before dying. ICE is escalating pressure on local officials, threatening Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart with criminal charges and clash
At least 22 immigrants have died in ICE custody in 2026, including recent deaths at Delaney Hall detention center where detainees reported being sick before they died. Meanwhile, ICE is escalating pressure on local officials, threatening Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart with criminal charges for his refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement. Deaths in custody are climbing even as immigration enforcement intensifies.
The deaths and the threats are connected. When ICE pressures local sheriffs and jail operators to hold people longer and detain more of them, detention facilities become overcrowded and conditions worsen. People get sick. Detainees don't receive adequate medical care. The scale—22 deaths in a single year—indicates a systemic failure, but the administration's response is to apply more pressure, not less. Threatening sheriffs who resist is a way of removing the last layer of local resistance to ICE operations.
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