He pleaded with his jailers in handwritten notes to arrange a conversation with her. “I feel in my heart that she’s very worried about me,” he wrote in Spanish.

A guard collected the note & walked away. Within an hour, #jail records show, he was found unconscious in his cell. An autopsy determined he killed himself.

#law #Trump #immigration #ICE #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #PublicHealth #abuse #isolation #suicide #MentalHealth

Rayo’s April 2025 death was the first suicide in a spike among #ICE detainees that has alarmed #PublicHealth officials & #jail experts. They said the unprecedented number of #suicide deaths is an indication that authorities are failing to properly oversee the detention of tens of thousands of #immigrants swept up in the #Trump admin’s aggressive #deportation strategy.

#law #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #abuse #isolation #MentalHealth

An AP investigation found that at least 10 detainees, all men, have died by #suicide since #Trump took office in Jan 2025, a pace that FAR EXCEEDS the growth in the detainee population, acc/to a review of #ICE data, autopsy reports, coroners’ rulings & police records. Since October, 7 deaths have been ruled suicides, a number that is already the most for ANY fiscal year in the agency’s history. ICE has usually recorded 1 or NO such deaths annually.

#law #immigration #PublicHealth #MentalHealth

“Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of #PublicHealth or #MentalHealth perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who cowrote a study documenting the increase in mortality & #suicide rates among #ICE detainees. “This is one of those alarming, sudden increases.”

#law #Trump #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #abuse #isolation

9 of the deaths were of Hispanic men who had arrived in the US from 4 countries, the AP found. One man was a Chinese citizen. Their average age was 32. While #Trump has characterized those facing deportation as the “worst of the worst,” 7 of the 10 had NO record of violent crimes in the US.

#law #immigration #ICE #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #PublicHealth #abuse #isolation #suicide #MentalHealth

The suicides account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in #ICE custody since Jan 2025. The majority of those deaths were from “natural causes” & experts say many of them would have been preventable with timely #medical care.

#law #Trump #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #PublicHealth #abuse #isolation #suicide #MentalHealth

The reasons behind any #suicide are complex, & each death often has multiple contributing factors, acc/to experts. #ICE detainees report intense stress after being detained, fear of being returned to countries where their safety may be jeopardized, & frustration & loneliness over the inability to communicate due to language barriers.

#law #Trump #immigration #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #PublicHealth #abuse #isolation #MentalHealth

Detainees can also feel helplessness because of the complexity surrounding #immigration #law. Unlike those in the criminal justice system, most detainees do NOT have lawyers & their detention on immigration violations is [supposedly] not meant to be punitive [under other admins].

#Trump #ICE #TheCrueltyIsThePoint #HumanRights #HumanitarianLaw #PublicHealth #suicide #MentalHealth

#ICE becomes responsible for their well-being when they enter #detention, & experts say well-run lockups should have few, if any, suicides. That’s because staff can take steps to mitigate the chances that detainees harm themselves by identifying those at risk, getting them #care & monitoring them closely, experts said.

AP’s investigation found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s own standards.

#law #Trump #immigration #suicide #MentalHealth