As we finish Trump’s first year in office and look back, there have been many lives stolen due to the increasingly invasive presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In 2025, there were more ICE deaths than there have been in two decades, 32 of them being in ICE detention facilities. At the time of writing this article, ICE has taken the lives of nine individuals since the new year.
Keith Porter Jr. (1982-Dec. 31, 2025)
Keith Porter Jr. was the first coming into the new year. Porter was a 43-year-old Black man and father of two daughters. On Jan. 31, he was shot in Los Angeles by an off-duty ICE agent, Brian Palacios. On New Year’s Eve, Palacios was in his home when he heard gunshots. He came outside with his ICE-issued firearm and claims that he identified himself as law enforcement before shooting Porter three times. However, witnesses claim that no one identified themselves before shots were fired.
Porter was firing a rifle, but witnesses deny that he was aiming his weapon at anyone or posing any threat, and his family claims the gunshots were part of his New Year’s Eve celebration. Porter had no criminal record. Palacios has an alleged history of child abuse and has said several homophobic slurs and racist comments. Porter was the first public death by an ICE agent on the cusp of 2026, but his story is not often told, perhaps in part because there is no video of the incident to garner social media attention that exists in other cases. Palacios remains free, and has not been charged.
Los Angeles residents have gathered together, holding vigils and protesting in solidarity with Porter and his family.
Renée Good (1988-Jan. 7, 2026)
Renée Good’s death followed just a week after Porter’s on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Good was a 37-year-old mom and U.S. citizen. She had dropped her son off at school and was on her way home when she encountered ICE agents in her neighborhood. One agent, Jonathan Ross, started recording Good and her wife, while circling Good’s car. Good’s wife was outside of the car, also recording. Ross walked in front of the front-left side of the vehicle, still recording, when another agent repeatedly told Good to get out of her car and pulled on the handle of the driver’s side door.
The ICE agent who was on the driver’s side then started reaching through Good’s open window and Good started driving to the right, away from Ross and the agent trying to grab her. Ross pulled out his weapon and fired one shot through Good’s windshield. As Good kept turning and Ross was completely out of the car’s way, he shot two more times, aiming right through Good’s open driver’s side window. Good drove off, hitting a pole just a few houses down.
Kristi Noem, Department of Homeland Security secretary, took questions the next day and defended the officers on site. Noem claimed that the ICE agents were blocked in by protesters. In witness videos and in Ross’ cell phone video, you can clearly see that the agent’s car was not blocked by Good’s vehicle.
“This was an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said, referring to Good’s actions.
Noem also claimed that Good hit Ross with her vehicle and Ross was in the hospital. During this press conference, Noem stood at a podium that said “One of ours, all of yours.” Many people on social media saw this quote and connected it to a slogan used in Nazi Germany. While the quote is not a verbatim Nazi slogan, it does capture the spirit of the Nazis, as we remember the massacre of the Czech village of Lidice. Noem did not address the slogan.
“If they conduct violent activities against law enforcement, if they impede our operations, that’s a crime, and we will hold them accountable to those consequences,” Noem told Fox News about the Minneapolis protests.
Good’s death sparked anger and protests throughout the city. In January, thousands of protests occurred throughout the nation. The phrase “Be Good” started circulating, and even made it to some award shows where notable names like Mark Ruffalo, Natasha Lyonne and Wanda Sykes wore pins that said “Be Good.” Some also used the “Be Good” campaign to honor Keith Porter Jr.
Alex Pretti (1988-Jan. 24, 2026)
On Jan. 24 in Minneapolis, two weeks after Renée Good’s death, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was murdered while filming the unlawful and unconstitutional acts of CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) agents.
The DHS stated that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.” In video footage recorded by a witness, Pretti is seen holding only his phone to record the situation and can be observed directing traffic and trying to help a woman that CBP officers had pepper sprayed and targeted. Pretti was then pepper sprayed after attempting to help another woman being attacked, and he was pinned down, beaten and then fatally shot approximately ten times in just five seconds.
Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez were identified as officers who were part of the attack on Pretti. According to a statement by Ochoa’s ex-wife to ProPublica, Ochoa “had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol” and had a very large firearm collection. Not much is known about Gutierrez, other than he joined CBP’s Office of Field Operations in 2014.
Pretti did have a holstered firearm, which is the weapon that the DHS claims he approached officers with. However, in separate video footage recorded by a different witness, Pretti’s firearm was holstered on his leg until he was grounded by the officers. In the video you can see a CBP officer disarm Pretti and flee the situation with Pretti’s firearm before the fatal shooting. Notably, Pretti had no criminal record and was a legal gun owner with a valid permit to carry.
Despite the video evidence against the CBP officers that debunk their claims for justification in the shooting, they have persistently stated that it was an act of self defense. The DHS and the Trump Administration back this story and, when confronted about the video footage, refuse to acknowledge it as proof and state that they have nothing to apologize for.
The Department of Justice is currently investigating the shooting of Alex Pretti, though not that of Renée Good. This investigation is stated to be separate from that of the investigation led by the DHS.
These three victims, Keith Porter Jr., Renée Good and Alex Pretti, were United States citizens. There are more deaths at the hands of ICE and the DHS that haven’t been as heavily publicized due to their location and the immigration status of victims.
Geraldo Lunas Campos (1970/1971-Jan. 3, 2026)
Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old man from Cuba, died on Jan. 3 while in ICE custody. Campos had been placed in segregation, he was in distress, and medical staff utilized life-saving measures on him. Earlier that day, there were claims that he was “disruptive” while in line to receive medication. According to witnesses, Campos was placed in a chokehold by multiple guards, and the autopsy showed damage to blood vessels around his neck, and injuries to his knees and chest. ICE claimed his death was a suicide, but it was ruled a homicide by the El Paso County Coroner.
Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres (1984/1985-Jan. 5, 2026)
Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres was a 42-year-old Honduran citizen who died on Jan. 5 due to chronic heart-related health issues. Before this, Núñez Cáceres was put in two different facilities within a week: the Montgomery ICE Processing Center and the Joe Corley ICE Processing Center. These facilities are both operated by The GEO Group, Inc.
Núñez Cáceres’s brother has made a GoFundMe page, asking for assistance in trying to bring his brother’s body home. He alleges that the detention conditions contributed to Núñez Cáceres’s death.
“For several days, he insistently asked for his medication, but only received the answer of ‘tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.’ He spent three days unconscious on the ground before he was finally picked up, treating him like it didn’t matter,” his brother wrote in Spanish on the GoFundMe page. “The injustice and suffering we have lived through are difficult to express, but we want their story to be known and their memory to be honored. Any support, no matter how small, will be of great help to our family in this very difficult time.”
Parady La (1980/1981-Jan. 6, 2026)
Parady La, a 46-year-old Cambodian father was taken into ICE custody on Jan. 6. La was raised in the U.S. with his parents who fled Cambodia during the Cambodian Genocide.
Three days after being detained, La died in Thomas Jefferson University Hospital after being in critical condition the night before. An ICE statement said that La was “receiving treatment for severe drug withdrawal,” but ICE also states that on Jan. 7 La was found “unresponsive” in his cell.
On Feb. 5, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania filed a request on behalf of La’s family for all records of La to help reveal the truth of what happened to him while in custody. La’s family has also made a GoFundMe to pay for his funeral.
Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz (1958/1959-Jan. 6, 2026)
Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz, a 68-year-old Honduran immigrant, died on Jan. 6 also due to heart-related health issues, though his cause of death is undisclosed. It is stated that Yanez-Cruz was feeling ill leading up to his hospitalization and death, but little action was taken to treat him. His daughter had encouraged him to seek medical attention while detained, though states that ICE should have taken him to the hospital sooner and did not take his situation seriously despite his apparent decline in health. ICE did not inform Yanez-Cruz’s family of his hospitalization, who said they were devastated they weren’t able to say goodbye.
“We have maintained a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens – including providing access to proper medical care,” DHS said to The Guardian. “This is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”
Yanez-Cruz had lived in the U.S. for 26 years and was detained for approximately two months before his death.
Victor Manuel-Diaz (1990/1991-Jan. 14, 2026)
Victor Manuel-Diaz was a Nicaraguan immigrant who was found “unconscious and unresponsive” while in an ICE detention facility. The cause of death was a “presumed suicide” on Jan. 14. However, his family said that they do not believe that Diaz took his life. They are currently calling for an investigation into his death.
Diaz’s autopsy isn’t being conducted by a local medical examiner, which drives further suspicion. Randall Kallinen, the Texas-based attorney for the Diaz family, stated that Diaz’s body was being taken to William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss. An official cause of death has not been ruled in Diaz’s case.
Heber Sanchez Domínguez (1992/1993-Jan. 14, 2026)
Heber Sanchez Domínguez, a 34-year-old Mexican immigrant, died in a detention facility in Georgia on Jan. 14 after being held in custody for six days. DHS stated that he was “hanging by the neck and unresponsive,” though the cause of death is currently under investigation. Domínguez was a father of two children with his wife, Mirna Sanchez. On the official ICE webpage about his case, his name is misspelled as “Sanchaz” in all occurrences.
The Trump administration has stated that they are attempting to hold a capacity of up to 100,000 immigration detainees at any given time. ICE is currently holding the most detainees it has ever seen, nearly doubling the number of detainees that were held just last year at around this time.
Photos // CNN, USAGestapo, The Guardian, MSN, GoFundMe, AP, National Day Laborer Organizing Network
