The ICE Detainee Suicide Crisis Is the Worst in the Agency’s History and the Deaths Keep Coming

Brayan Rayo Garzon slipped two handwritten notes under his cell door on his fourth day in isolation at a Missouri jail. He was 26, sick with COVID-19 and had not been allowed to speak to his mother in days. He asked the guards to let him call her. Within an hour, he was found unconscious with a sheet around his neck. He died shortly after at a St. Louis hospital.

An Associated Press investigation identified Rayo’s April 2025 death as the first in an unprecedented spike in suicides among ICE detainees. At least 10 detainees, all men, have died by suicide since January 2025, already the highest number for any fiscal year in ICE history. The agency typically records one or no such deaths annually.

Who These Men Were

Nine of the ten men were Latino. One was a Chinese citizen. Their average age was 32, and seven had no record of violent crimes in the United States. The suicides account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. Epidemiologists studying the increase described it as an alarming and sudden surge pointing to serious failures in public health and mental health oversight.

The men died across ICE’s detention network in private contractor facilities, county jails and a federal prison. Among them was a 19-year-old from Mexico detained after a misdemeanor traffic stop on a scooter and a 36-year-old restaurant worker who lost contact with his family after being transferred across the country.

Systemic Failures Across the Detention Network

The AP found that ICE detention centers repeatedly violated the agency’s own standards. Staff ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment, failed to monitor at-risk detainees and allowed access to materials that could be used for self-harm. Distressed detainees were placed in isolation, which experts say worsens feelings of helplessness and increases suicide risk.

One detainee spent two nights screaming and reporting hallucinations before a nurse scheduled treatment for the following week. He was found dead before that appointment. Another arrived in mental distress having already attempted suicide in prior custody, spent five days without mental health treatment or access to anyone who spoke his language and was found dead in a shower stall. At a Texas facility later found to have 49 violations of detention standards, a detainee died by suicide after being placed in isolation while tools capable of self-harm had been left unsecured throughout the building.

The Last Days of Brayan Rayo Garzon

Rayo was a Colombian military veteran who crossed into the United States with his family in 2023 and settled in St. Louis working as a housepainter and food delivery driver. He was arrested in March 2025 after using a stolen credit card obtained from a friend and classified by ICE as a low public safety risk.

The county jail that received him had begun accepting ICE detainees one month earlier. It took 35 hours to conduct intake screening that ICE promises within 12 hours. Rayo told a nurse he was anxious and wanted mental health treatment. He was assessed through a handheld translator, listed as stable and referred for a routine appointment that was subsequently canceled twice, both violations of ICE standards. He was moved into isolation and his nightly calls to his mother were stopped.

When he passed two notes under his door asking to speak to her, a guard logged the request and noted a follow-up was planned. Within an hour Rayo was found unconscious. He died at a St. Louis hospital. His mother received a call from hospital staff telling her he was gone. Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on Colombia’s foreign ministry to issue a formal protest in response to the AP investigation. ICE maintained that detainee suicide deaths remain extremely rare. The AP’s findings across ten deaths and multiple facilities tell a different story.