ICE Deaths Spike – Homan Flips the Script

A border czar told a CBS News reporter he wished a dead woman “was alive today,” then turned the cameras around by asking for data the reporter did not have.

Story Snapshot

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, sparred with CBS News reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez over rising deaths in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
The exchange came as the family of Renee Good, an American citizen shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, filed two federal lawsuits naming Homan and other officials.
CBS News cited 57 deaths in ICE custody under the current administration; Homan asked for comparable Biden-era numbers, which the reporter could not provide on the spot.
Separate CBS and Human Rights Watch analyses show 2025 custody deaths hit a two-decade high, with the death rate climbing even after adjusting for a larger detained population.
The Renee Good lawsuits remain pending in federal court, meaning no judge has ruled on the claims against Homan or other named officials.

Reporter Presses Homan Over Custody Deaths

Camilo Montoya-Galvez pushed Homan during a CBS News interview, telling him official ICE data showed 57 deaths in agency custody since the current administration took office. Homan did not dispute the number. Instead, he asked Montoya-Galvez how many people died in ICE custody under President Biden. The reporter admitted he did not have that figure with him.

Homan argued the death count needs context. He pointed to a detained population of roughly 74,000 people, suggesting that more people in custody naturally means more deaths, tragic or not. He framed the comparison as incomplete without a matching time period from a prior administration.

Renee Good Case Adds Personal Stakes

The exchange happened days after Renee Good’s family filed two federal lawsuits over her death. An ICE agent shot and killed Good, an American citizen, during an immigration operation in Minneapolis. The family’s complaints name Homan and other officials, accusing them of orchestrating the operation that led to her death.

Homan told CBS News he “was not involved in the investigation” into Good’s death and said that work belongs to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He added, “I wish Renee Good was alive today,” while declining to say whether the investigation had made progress. The lawsuits remain pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, so no court has ruled on the family’s claims.

What the Death Numbers Actually Show

Homan’s call for Biden-era comparison data raises a fair question, but outside data already offers some answers. A CBS News analysis found 31 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the highest yearly total in two decades. That analysis found the death rate, adjusted for how many people were detained, was the highest since 2020, when COVID-19 drove up fatalities nationwide.

A separate Human Rights Watch report found 52 people died in ICE custody during the first 500 days of the second Trump administration. A Reuters analysis found the custody death rate more than doubled compared with the 2009-2024 average, rising from about one death per 3,848 detainees to roughly one per 1,630. Those figures suggest the increase is not simply a function of a larger detained population, though none of the available reporting includes incident-by-incident findings on whether individual deaths were preventable.

Unresolved Questions Remain the Core Issue

Homan defended ICE detention as legally grounded, saying detainees are deportable “under federal law due to their illegal status” and receive “due process before immigration judges.” That legal framework is not in dispute. What remains unresolved is whether the rising death toll reflects scale, as Homan argues, or points to deeper problems in medical care and oversight inside detention facilities, as civil-rights groups and the Good family’s lawsuits allege.

No court or independent federal review cited in current reporting has yet determined whether any specific death in ICE custody resulted from misconduct or neglect. That leaves both sides working from incomplete information. For Americans across the political spectrum worried about government accountability, the fight over these numbers is really a fight over whether anyone outside the agency can verify what is happening behind detention center walls.