At least ten people in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have died by suicide since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, a rate that has no parallel in the agency’s two-decade history. All were men: nine from Latin America and one from China, and seven of the ten had committed no violent crime in the United States. The Associated Press investigation, reported extensively by Swedish and British newspapers, reveals a grim spike that stands in stark contrast to the occasional—often zero—suicides recorded in a typical year.

The case of Brayan Rayo Garzon, a Colombian national, lays bare the mechanics of that failure. Detained in a Missouri jail, he was placed in isolation while battling COVID-19 fevers and chills. His request for mental health treatment was put off, and he was forbidden from making his nightly call to his mother as a precaution against spreading illness. He pleaded in handwritten notes to speak with her, writing, “I feel in my heart that she’s very worried about me.” A guard collected his note and walked away; within an hour, Rayo was found unconscious in his cell and later pronounced dead. His story echoes a pattern documented by the probe: staff ignored warning signs, delayed psychiatric care, and failed to properly monitor those marked as high-risk.

Viewed from Washington, the surge in suicides coincides with the administration’s aggressive escalation of arrests and deportations, which has swollen the detained population and strained a system already starved of resources. Analysts in London note that ICE detention was criticised for deficient mental health provision long before Mr. Trump’s second term, but the current pace of death is unprecedented. Swedish and other European media have amplified the findings, reflecting a transatlantic unease with America’s immigration enforcement apparatus that has built steadily over the past decade.

The outlook is bleak. With the president vowing the largest deportation operation in US history, the number of detainees will only climb, outpacing any realistic expansion of care. Without independent oversight or political appetite to prioritise detainee welfare, advocates fear that further deaths are inevitable. Human rights groups are preparing legal challenges, and Latin American governments may soon face pressure to demand accountability. For now, the ten men who took their own lives inside federal custody stand as a tragic testament to what experts describe as a systemic collapse.