Eight people have died at the hands of ICE so far in 2026. These are their names

Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres

On 5 January, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, a 42-year-old immigrant from Honduras, died in ICE custody at HCA Houston Healthcare in Conroe, Texas. He had been admitted into the Houston-area hospital for a heart-related condition, according to an ICE statement. Nunez was first arrested by ICE agents during an operation in Houston on 17 November and was eventually transferred to the Joe Corley Processing Center in Conroe. On New Year’s Eve, ICE said, “he suffered multiple life-threatening medical emergencies, and HCA medical personnel moved him to the intensive care unit, where he remained until his death”. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to the Guardian: “We have maintained higher standard of care than most prisons that hold US citizens – including providing access to proper medical care.” For many immigrants, DHS said, “this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives”.

“My brother was a person full of life and hope, always fighting for his wellbeing and that of our family,” Nunez’s brother wrote in Spanish on a GoFundMe page requesting assistance in bringing his brother’s body home. “Sadly, his life was cut short due to the lack of adequate medical care while he was in ICE custody.”

Geraldo Lunas Campos

On 3 January, while in ICE custody, a Cuban immigrant died of homicide, according to a recent autopsy report. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four, died at the ICE facility Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas. In a 9 January statement, ICE said, “Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was subsequently placed in segregation.” Medical personnel were called for assistance when they noticed him in distress, ICE claimed. The federal government later claimed that staff had been trying to save Lunas as he attempted suicide.

Geraldo Lunas Campos with his three children. Lunas Campos died 3 January at an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Photograph: AP

However, a witness told the Associated Press that Lunas Campos was handcuffed and that he was put into a chokehold until he became unconscious. The El Paso county medical examiner’s office autopsy report said that his body showed signs of damaged vessels on his neck and injury on his knees and chest, according to PBS.

Lunas Campos was originally arrested by immigration enforcement agents in Rochester, New York, in July, ICE said, and that he had been in the US for 30 years.

Victor Manuel Diaz

A 36-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant, Victor Manuel Diaz, also died at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, on 14 January. In a statement following his death, ICE said that security staff found him “unconscious and unresponsive in his room”. ICE said that Diaz’s death was a “presumed suicide” but that his death remains under investigation.

“I don’t believe he took his life,” Diaz’s brother Yorlan Diaz told ABC News. “He was not a criminal. He was looking for a better life and he wanted to help our mother.”

Parady La

A Pennsylvania man, Parady La, died while in ICE custody at the Thomas Jefferson University hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 9 January. The 46-year-old Cambodian immigrant was picked up near his Upper Darby home a few days before his death, his family told 6 ABC Action News. In a statement, ICE said that La was found unresponsive in the federal detention center in Philadelphia, where he was receiving treatment for drug withdrawal.

He was given Narcan and then taken to the hospital and diagnosed with organ failures, among other conditions. His family was notified on 8 January and visited him at the hospital, after they had spent days searching for him.

His daughter, Jazmine La, said that her dad “was a real person and people loved him”.

Renee Nicole Good

Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by a federal agent in her car on 7 January. The 37-year-old mother of three was a poet and writer who had moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City, Missouri, last year.

Renee Nicole Good. Photograph: Old Dominion University/Facebook

DHS secretary Kristi Noem said that the law enforcement agent who killed Good had responded to an “act of domestic terrorism”.

Good studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Virginia, where she won an Academy of American Poets prize in 2020.

Donna Ganger, her mother, told the Minnesota Star Tribune: “Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.”

Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz

On 6 January, Honduran immigrant Luis Beltran Yanez–Cruz died at the John F Kennedy memorial hospital in Indio, California, from heart-related issues, according to an ICE statement following his death. The father of three initially entered the US in 1993, according to ICE, was removed from the country, and reentered at least 20 years ago. ICE arrested him in Newark, New Jersey, in November 2025.

Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, 68, of New Jersey, in a photo from his memorial in Coachella, California, on 16 January. Photograph: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

According to ICE, Yanez-Cruz was detained at Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico and was later transferred to the hospital for chest pain, where he died.

His daughter, Josselyn Yanez, told News Channel 3 that his heart-related issues began after he was detained. “My soul was destroyed,” she said, “because I really hoped that my father would leave that place, but not in this way.”

Heber Sanchez Domínguez

Heber Sanchez Domínguez, a 34-year-old from Mexico, died at the Robert A Deyton Detention Center in Lovejoy, Georgia, on 14 January. In a statement, ICE said that he was found unresponsive and that his death was under investigation. After being arrested in Georgia on 7 January for driving without a license, he was transferred to the Lovejoy detention center as he awaited removal proceedings. ICE said that the detention center staff found him hanging from his neck and transferred him to the Piedmont Henry medical center, where he was pronounced dead.

The Mexican consulate in Atlanta told CBS News that Mexican officials have asked that “the circumstances of the incident be clarified”.

Alex Pretti

Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse for a veterans affairs hospital, was fatally shot by federal agents during an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis on 24 January. The 37-year-old Minneapolis resident was trying to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents when he was tackled, beaten, restrained and shot to death.

Alex J Pretti, who was shot by federal officers in Minneapolis on 24 January. Photograph: AP

Following his death, senior White House official Stephen Miller wrote on X: “A domestic terrorist tried to assassinate federal law enforcement … .” Video evidence showed that Pretti, who was carrying a firearm around his waist, was holding only his phone in his hand and that he was disarmed prior to being shot.