Death in ICE Detention: A Family's Heartbreak from Inside

Ismael Ayala-Uribe was one of 53 people who died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of Trump's presidency.

During the first 500 days of Donald Trump's presidency, fifty-three people died in ICE custody. Fault Lines examines the case of Ismail Ayala-Uribe.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Saturdays were a weekly pilgrimage for Lucia Uribe. Every weekend, he drove to the edge of the California desert to visit his son Ismael Ayala-Uribe, who was in custody.

Ismail was among hundreds of thousands of people caught up in US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Born in Mexico and brought to America as a child, he was arrested on August 17 while working at a car wash. Since then, he has been in the custody of immigration officials, first at a local jail and then at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Adelanto, California.

But Saturday was different. Lucia remembers Ismail's hands looking paler, his eyes bloodshot and his fever rising.

"Mom, I'm not going to make it," Lucia remembers Ismail telling her. All he could do was reassure her.

"I told him, 'Oh, son, hang in there as long as you can,'" Lucia said. "When I said goodbye to him, I felt something in my chest, a tightness, and it made me want to cry."

This was the last time he saw his son alive. Lucia's fears were confirmed when she knocked on the door two days later, when police told her her son was dead at 2:32 a.m. on September 22, 2025.

Ismail was one of more than 50 people who died in ICE custody in the first 500 days of Trump's second term.

A medical examiner's report from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office in Southern California indicated that his death was due to complications from an abscess in his pelvis.

However, Ismail's family has argued that inadequate medical treatment at the ICE facility led to a preventable infection turning into a fatal disease.

For months, Al Jazeera's documentary series Fault Lines spoke to people in ICE detention and the families of those who never lived to understand the circumstances that could have led to deaths like Ismail's.

What it found was that 2025, the year of Ismail's death, was the deadliest year on record for those in ICE custody. But experts worry that 2026 is on track to match or surpass this record.

The Trump administration has consistently denied reports of an increase in deaths in ICE custody.

In a social media post in June, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, claimed that the death rate remained "consistent with data from the past decade."

"There is no increase in deaths," the department wrote, referring to the percentage of deaths relative to the total ICE detainee population.

But experts and watchdogs warn that ICE's framing can be misleading.

"What is often claimed is that the overall detention population is increasing," said Nicholas Cuneo, an immigrant health expert with Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy organization.

But he pointed to the statistics that show that the death rate has almost tripled. "It's clearly out of proportion to the incarcerated population," Cuneo said.

In June, Human Rights Watch published a report showing that since Trump's return to office, the death rate of immigrants in ICE custody has been nearly three times higher than under Joe Biden.

The annual death rate during Biden's four-year term was 2.24 per 10,000 inmates. Since the start of Trump's second term, that ratio has increased to 6.38 deaths per 10,000 people in custody.

In total, 33 people died in ICE custody last year, according to the agency's own statistics. So far in 2026, at least 26 people have lost their lives.

Regan Williams, a lawyer and human rights researcher who worked on the June report, said an increase in the total number of arrests did not explain the rise in deaths.

"The government is imprisoning an unprecedented number of immigrants," Williams said.

"However, this rapid increase in detention does not fully account for the dramatic increase in deaths. A higher percentage of immigrants detained under this administration are dying."

While overcrowding at ICE facilities is a factor, Doctors for Human Rights experts also found a pattern of delays in emergency care, understaffing and failure to provide adequate medical treatment.

These factors have raised concerns that many of the deaths caused by ICE may have been preventable, including Ismail's.

A round-faced man with dark-rimmed glasses, Sabila Ismail came to America when he was just five years old with cropped hair.

Southern California became her home, and as an adult, she became eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which offered temporary protection from deportation.

He lost his DACA status in 2015 after being convicted of driving under the influence.

His family remembers him as a caring son and uncle, always willing to buy new clothes or school supplies for his nieces and nephews.

"Ismael always took care of his siblings. He just had a big heart," said his brother Jose Miguel Ayala. He was very protective not only of us but also of my mother and father.

He was 39 when he was brought to the Adelanto ICE processing facility.

Two weeks after his arrival, Ismail told his family that he developed a high fever and a painful sore on his back.

On September 18, 2025, workers at Adelanto initiated a Code Blue alert for Ismail, indicating a serious medical emergency. The medical staff took him from his dormitory to the hospital in a wheelchair.

Ismail was given painkillers, ointments and fiber supplements, ICE documents show.

But according to Cuneo of Doctors for Human Rights, which investigated the case, Ismail should have received a physical examination and antibiotics.

That weekend, hours after Lucia's visit, Ismail's condition worsened. Just after midnight Sunday, ICE records say he was vomiting, shaking and sweating.

He was later sent to the intensive care unit, where he went into cardiac arrest within minutes of his arrival and subsequently died, according to ICE.

"I believe Ismail's death could have been completely prevented with timely care," Cuneo said. It was a simple abscess that was not treated in time.