The agency is facing pressure to improve medical care in its facilities after reporting the deaths of 18 detainees in the first five months of this year.

As the number of immigrants dying in government custody rises, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is shrinking the scope of which deaths it will be required to report.

In a memo sent to agency employees Thursday and reviewed by The Washington Post, acting director David Venturella said ICE is eliminating its requirement to report deaths that occur within 30 days of people being released from its custody.

“ICE is returning to the standard practice of reporting deaths that occur while an individual is in agency custody,” Venturella wrote in the memo.

The 30-day requirement was adopted in 2021, when President Joe Biden’s administration sought to hold ICE accountable for detainees released from its custody with serious medical conditions, said Deborah Fleischaker, who was acting chief of staff at the time. Earlier that year, a man who had contracted the coronavirus while detained at the Adelanto detention center in California died three days after ICE released him.

“The policy changed to make clear that ICE should not release people simply to avoid deaths in custody,” Fleischaker said.

In an email, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the change in policy, saying it is “common sense” that ICE should not be responsible for monitoring or reviews “when an individual passes away weeks after leaving their custody.”

ICE “remains committed to transparency regarding detainee deaths,” the spokesperson said. “This updated policy outlines procedures for timely notification, review and reporting of deaths occurring in ICE custody, including notifying next of kin, consulates, Congress and the public.”

ICE is facing pressure to improve medical care in its facilities after reporting the deaths of 18 detainees in the first five months of this year. That count is on pace to surpass last year’s toll of at least 30 deaths, which was the highest number in two decades.

Though all of the publicly reported deaths in 2025 and 2026 happened while people were still held in ICE custody, many occurred after detainees were taken to the hospital, according to ICE’s mandatory reports on deaths.

Congress has required ICE to report detainee deaths to the federal government since 2014, and publicly report all deaths since 2018. The rules are designed to ensure the government investigates and addresses potential problems that could have led to those deaths.

The 30-day requirement led to several government investigations into the deaths of former detainees who died shortly after being released, said Laboni Hoq, a Los Angeles-based civil rights lawyer who has gathered evidence for these probes through public records requests.

“Now to have that policy rescinded is devastating, in terms of ensuring proper standards are being met in detention facilities,” said Hoq, who represents the family of Martin Vargas Arellano, the Adelanto detainee who died after being released from ICE custody in 2021.

Vargas Arellano was already lying in the hospital brain-dead and comatose for a week when ICE released him from custody, according to the family’s lawsuit against ICE and Geo Group, the company that runs Adelanto. Because he was no longer an ICE detainee, the agency did not report his death to Congress, according to the lawsuit, which ICE settled and Geo Group continues to fight.

A spokesperson for Geo Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reflecting on this incident, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties said in a report that not investigating the death of a person who dies shortly after release from ICE custody “is a missed opportunity to improve the care provided and reduce liability.”