2026-05-27T06:26:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
布雷扬·拉约·加尔松情绪崩溃。他被美国移民和海关执法局拘留，在密苏里州一所监狱里被单独监禁的第四天，正经受着新冠病毒感染带来的发热和寒战。
记录显示，他的心理健康治疗申请被推迟，而工作人员为防止疾病传播，禁止他每晚致电母亲。
他手写便条恳求狱警安排他与母亲通话。“我心里清楚，她非常担心我，”他用西班牙语写道。
一名狱警收下便条后离开了。不到一小时，狱警记录显示，他被发现在牢房里失去意识。尸检结果认定他是自杀身亡。
拉约2025年4月的死亡是移民海关执法局拘留者自杀激增事件中的首例，这一情况已引起公共卫生官员和监狱专家的警惕。
他们表示，前所未有的自杀死亡人数表明，当局未能妥善监管特朗普政府激进驱逐政策中抓获的数万名移民的拘留情况。
美联社的一项调查发现，自2025年1月特朗普就职以来，至少有10名男性被拘留者自杀身亡。通过审查移民海关执法局的数据、尸检报告、验尸官裁定和警方记录，这一自杀频率远高于被拘留者人数的增长速度。自去年10月以来，已有7起死亡被归类为自杀，这一数字已经达到该局历史上任何一个财政年度的最高值。移民海关执法局通常每年记录一起或零起此类死亡事件。
“令人担忧的急剧上升”
“无论从公共卫生还是心理健康的任何角度来看，都出现了极其严重的问题，”加州大学旧金山分校流行病学家桑杰·巴苏博士说道，他曾共同撰写过一份记录移民海关执法局被拘留者死亡率和自杀率上升的研究报告。“这是那些令人担忧的急剧上升案例之一。”
美联社发现，其中9起死亡事件的受害者是来自四个国家的西班牙裔男性，另有一名受害者是中国公民。他们的平均年龄为32岁。尽管特朗普将面临驱逐的人描述为“最坏中的最坏”，但10人中有7人在美国没有暴力犯罪记录。
自2025年1月以来，移民海关执法局羁押场所内的51起死亡事件中，自杀事件占了近五分之一。其中大多数死亡原因是自然疾病，专家表示，如果能及时提供医疗护理，其中许多死亡本可以避免。
美国国土安全部代理助理部长劳伦·比斯表示，移民海关执法局羁押场所内的自杀死亡事件仍然“极为罕见”。
比斯表示，拘留人员会遵循相关规程，保护出现自我伤害迹象的被拘留者，且移民海关执法局要求每年开展自杀预防培训。她说，被拘留者可获得全面的医疗保健，包括心理健康服务。
专家表示，任何自杀背后的原因都很复杂，每一起死亡事件往往都有多个促成因素。移民海关执法局的被拘留者报告称，被拘留后压力极大，害怕被遣返回可能危及自身安全的国家，同时因语言障碍无法沟通而感到沮丧和孤独。
被拘留者还会因移民法律的复杂性感到无助。与刑事司法系统中的在押人员不同，大多数被拘留者没有律师，且他们因违反移民法被拘留并非惩罚性措施。
移民海关执法局在被拘留者进入羁押状态后需对其福祉负责，专家表示，运营良好的拘留场所即使有自杀事件，数量也会极少。专家称，这是因为工作人员可以采取措施降低被拘留者自我伤害的可能性：识别高危人群、为其提供治疗并密切监控。
美联社：甚至连移民海关执法局自身标准都未达到
美联社的调查发现，移民海关执法局的拘留中心屡次违反该局自身的标准。
对10起自杀死亡事件的审查发现，这些男性受害者在移民海关执法局的整个拘留网络中死亡，包括长期由私人承包商运营的拘留中心以及近期成为移民海关执法局合作伙伴的县监狱。美联社通过审查移民海关执法局的检查报告和死亡记录发现，这些场所的工作人员无视痛苦迹象、推迟心理健康治疗，且未能监控已被认定存在风险的被拘留者。他们还允许被拘留者接触可用于自残的物品。
在某些案例中，他们将情绪痛苦的被拘留者单独监禁，而专家表示，单独监禁会加剧羞辱感和无助感。
移民海关执法局多次声称，会在被拘留者抵达后12小时内对其进行医疗、牙科和心理健康状况筛查。
根据移民海关执法局的检查报告和监狱记录，在9名自杀身亡被拘留者所在的设施中，至少有3家未能达到这一标准。
前纽约市监狱首席医疗官、曾就防止被拘留者死亡事宜为移民海关执法局提供咨询的荷马·文特斯博士称，自杀率上升令人恐惧。
这一上升趋势“反映了系统运营的失败，尤其是在进入拘留的最初阶段，人们没有得到充分评估，”文特斯说道。“如果接收筛查发现了危险信号，也没有采取行动降低他们发生可预防死亡的风险。”
在这些自杀者中，有一名19岁的墨西哥男子，他在骑滑板车时因交通轻罪被拦下后遭拘留。
另一名是36岁的餐厅员工，他在移民海关执法局将其拘留于明尼苏达州并送往德克萨斯州一个拥挤的营地后，与尼加拉瓜的亲属失去了联系。第三名是45岁的男子，他多次非法穿越美墨边境，且有长期犯罪记录。
一名男子的故事
拉约，这名在恳求与母亲通话后自杀的男子，曾是哥伦比亚军队的退伍军人，在祖国以街头小贩为生。2023年他26岁生日一周后，他的家人在加利福尼亚州穿越了美国边境。记录和采访显示，他被拘留了三个月，之后获准与圣路易斯的家人团聚。
他的母亲阿德里安娜·加尔松表示，拉约很快适应了美国的生活，轻松交到了朋友，做过房屋油漆工和外卖骑手。她说，2024年一名法官下令将他遣返回哥伦比亚后，他想攒钱聘请律师帮助他留在美国。
法庭记录显示，2025年3月，拉约在一家电子烟商店使用从朋友处获得的被盗信用卡时被圣路易斯警方逮捕。移民海关执法局随后将他拘留。美联社获得的一份移民海关执法局记录将拉约归类为对公共安全构成低风险的劳工。
移民海关执法局将拉约安置在距圣路易斯约100英里的罗拉市菲尔普斯县监狱。
该监狱在拉约抵达前一个月才开始接收移民海关执法局的被拘留者。该县警长迈克尔·基恩是共和党人，该县选民压倒性支持特朗普连任，他告诉委员会，本部门的预算紧张，与移民海关执法局合作可带来数百万美元的收入。
记录显示，拉约的麻烦从抵达后立刻开始。根据美联社根据公开记录法获得的监狱记录，监狱花了35小时才完成最初的医疗筛查，而移民海关执法局承诺在12小时内完成此项筛查。
拉约出现呼吸困难症状，并告诉护士他感到焦虑，希望接受心理健康治疗。
根据密苏里州公路巡逻队对拉约死亡事件调查所汇编的文件，一名不会说西班牙语的护士使用“手持翻译设备”对拉约进行了评估，得出的结论是他否认有自杀念头和抑郁情绪。
记录显示，她建议将他转入普通监区，将其身体和精神状况列为稳定，并安排他进行常规心理健康预约。
两天后，他报告头痛和身体疼痛。工作人员得知他的结核杆菌检测呈阳性。他被送往医院，被诊断出感染了新冠病毒。次日他被送回监狱。
心理健康预约被安排后又因“心理健康诊所时间和人员安排”被取消，一份监狱记录显示。两天后，他们再次取消了他的预约，这次的理由是他的新冠病毒感染。
这些延误违反了移民海关执法局关于需在转诊后一周内提供心理健康治疗的标准。
国土安全部发言人比斯表示，拉约在被移民海关执法局拘留期间“获得了高质量的医疗护理”。
为缓解他的焦虑，拉约睡前会致电母亲，分享天主教的祝福。“我给他打气，”加尔松说道，她的名字阿德里安娜纹在了儿子的手臂上。
随着拉约出现恶心、寒战和疼痛等症状加重，工作人员将他转移到一个头顶装有监控摄像头的水泥砖隔离牢房，以便进行更密切的监控并防止疾病传播。他不被允许致电母亲。
在被单独监禁的第四天，拉约从门下递出两张便条，恳求狱警让他和妈妈通话。其中一张便条被美联社审阅过，他恳求狱警体谅他的处境。“我知道你有家人，你也知道他们会为我们担心，”他用西班牙语写道。“愿上帝保佑你。”
这名会说英语的狱警借用同事的手机翻译了便条，并在报告中写道他计划跟进此事。
不到一小时，狱警发现拉约躺在床上失去意识，脖子上缠着床单。
急救人员试图对他进行复苏，并将其送往医院。就在那时，一名官员致电拉约的母亲——告知她儿子情况危急，将被空运至圣路易斯的一家医疗中心。在医院，医生告诉了她这个毁灭性的消息：她的儿子已经死亡。
移民海关执法局承包商对美联社报道作出回应
这些死亡事件暴露了移民海关执法局系统内治疗和监督的漏洞。在特朗普的第二任期内，被拘留者人数激增了50%，达到6万人。
其中5人死亡事件发生在长期合作的移民海关执法局拘留伙伴CoreCivic和GEO集团运营的中心。另有6人死于移民海关执法局后来更换了承包商的一家缺乏经验的运营商运营的营地。3人死于县警长运营的监狱，1人死于联邦监狱。
“我们对任何在我们照料下离世的人都深感悲痛，并高度重视此事，”CoreCivic发言人布莱恩·托德说道。
GEO集团发言人克里斯托弗·费雷拉表示，该公司会对员工进行自杀预防培训，并致力于“维持符合联邦政府设定的标准和要求的安全可靠环境”。三家监狱的官员要么拒绝置评，要么未回复留言。
34岁的莱奥·克鲁兹·席尔瓦曾多次从墨西哥非法入境美国，去年秋天在圣路易斯郊区因公共场所醉酒被捕后被拘留，随后出现急性心理健康危机，记录显示。
在密苏里州圣热纳维耶芙县监狱的两晚里，克鲁兹尖叫、躲在床下并报告出现幻觉，根据一份关于他死亡的移民海关执法局报告。但他并未迅速获得帮助。
移民海关执法局的报告称，一名护士开了抗精神病药物，并计划在下周为他安排治疗。
第三天，他被发现死于牢房中。
乔丰·葛去年夏天在宾夕法尼亚州一家由GEO集团运营的设施中被移交给移民海关执法局羁押，当时他精神状态极差，此前他承认犯有轻微的礼品卡欺诈罪，并在州羁押期间曾试图自杀，代表其家人的律师戴维·兰金说道。
兰金表示，在该设施的五天里，他没有获得心理健康治疗，且由于无人会说普通话，他无法与人沟通。最终，葛在无人监控的情况下被发现吊死在淋浴间里。
“完全不可接受”
“很明显，移民海关执法局几乎没有采取任何措施保障这些人的安全，”兰金说道。“他们似乎想让这个过程尽可能残酷和不人道。这完全不可接受。”
根据移民海关执法局的一份报告，德克萨斯州埃尔帕索的东蒙大拿营，36岁的维克多·迪亚兹今年1月在医疗观察室自杀身亡。报告称，他在报告遭到同室被拘留者的骚扰后被转移到单独监禁。
几乎就在同一时间，在同一设施中，杰拉尔多·卢纳斯·坎波斯在移民海关执法局称狱警在其自杀未遂后对其进行约束后，因窒息死亡。一名验尸官将其死亡裁定为他杀，特朗普政府官员表示联邦调查局正在调查其具体情况。
移民海关执法局的检查员在2月访问了该设施，在其报告中记录了当时作为移民海关执法局最大拘留设施的该场所存在49项违反拘留标准的行为。
报告发现，工作人员未记录“防止重大自我伤害和自杀的 required checks”，检查员还发现整个设施内的工具和设备未固定、去向不明，可用于伤害他人。拨打911的电话显示，还有其他几名被拘留者在此地试图自杀。
在发生死亡事件和检查时，Acquisition Logistics是该设施的运营商。移民海关执法局随后用另一家承包商替换了Acquisition Logistics。Acquisition Logistics未回复寻求置评的留言。
本故事涉及自杀话题。
如果您或您认识的人正处于情绪困扰或自杀危机中，可拨打或发送短信988联系988自杀与危机生命线。您也可以与988自杀与危机生命线在线聊天。
如需了解更多关于心理健康护理资源和支持的信息，可在美国东部时间周一至周五上午10点至晚上10点拨打全国精神疾病联盟（NAMI）热线1-800-950-NAMI (6264)，或发送邮件至info@nami.org。
People held by ICE dying by suicide at increasing, high rate, AP probe finds
2026-05-27T06:26:00-0400 / CBS News
Brayan Rayo Garzon was distraught. Detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was on his fourth day of isolation in a Missouri jail as he battled the fevers and chills of COVID-19.
His request for mental health treatment had been put off, records show, and staff had forbidden Rayo from making his nightly call to his mother as a precaution intended to prevent the spread of illness.
He pleaded with his jailers in handwritten notes to arrange a conversation with her. “I feel in my heart that she’s very worried about me,” he wrote in Spanish.
A guard collected the note and walked away. Within an hour, jail records show, he was found unconscious in his cell. An autopsy determined he had killed himself.
Rayo’s April 2025 death was the first suicide in a spike among ICE detainees that has alarmed public health officials and jail experts.
They say the unprecedented number of suicide deaths is an indication that authorities are failing to properly oversee the detention of tens of thousands of immigrants swept up in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy.
An Associated Press investigation found that at least 10 detainees, all men, have died by suicide since President Trump took office in January 2025, a pace that far exceeds the growth in the detainee population, according to a review of ICE data, autopsy reports, coroner’s rulings, and police records. Since October, seven deaths have been classified as suicides, a number that is already the most for any fiscal year in the agency’s history. ICE has usually recorded one or no such deaths annually.
“Alarming, sudden increases”
“Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who cowrote a study documenting the increase in mortality and suicide rates among ICE detainees. “This is one of those alarming, sudden increases.”
Nine of the deaths were of Hispanic men who had arrived in the U.S. from four countries, the AP found. One man was a Chinese citizen. Their average age was 32. While Mr. Trump has characterized those facing deportation as the “worst of the worst,” seven of the 10 had no record of violent crimes in the U.S.
The suicides account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. The majority of them were from natural causes and experts say many would have been preventable with timely medical care.
Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary Lauren Bies said suicide deaths in ICE custody remain “extremely rare.”
Bies said detention staff members follow protocols to protect detainees who show signs of self-harming and that ICE requires annual suicide prevention training. She said detainees receive comprehensive healthcare, including mental health services.
The reasons behind any suicide are complex, and each death often has multiple contributing factors, according to experts. ICE detainees report intense stress levels after being detained, fear of being returned to countries where their safety may be jeopardized, and frustration and loneliness over the inability to communicate due to language barriers.
Detainees can also feel helplessness because of the complexity surrounding immigration law. Unlike those in the criminal justice system, most detainees do not have lawyers and their detention on immigration violations is not meant to be punitive.
ICE becomes responsible for their well-being when they enter detention, and experts say well-run lockups should have few, if any, suicides. That’s because staff can take steps to mitigate the chances that detainees harm themselves by identifying those at risk, getting them care and monitoring them closely, the experts said.
Even ICE standards not being met, AP says
The AP investigation found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s own standards.
An examination of the 10 suicide deaths found the men died across ICE’s detention network, including at centers long run by private contractors and county jails who recently became ICE partners. The AP found that staff in the facilities ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk. They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm, according to AP’s review of ICE inspection reports and death records.
In some cases, they jailed distressed detainees in isolation, which can exacerbate feelings of humiliation and helplessness, according to experts.
ICE has repeatedly asserted that it screens detainees within 12 hours of arrival for medical, dental and mental health conditions.
At least three of the nine facilities where ICE detainees died by suicide have struggled to meet that standard, according to ICE inspection reports and jail records.
Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of New York City jails who previously consulted with ICE on preventing detainee deaths, called the rise in suicides terrifying.
The increase “reflects failures in how the system’s being operated, and particularly failures in how the first stages of coming into detention are happening so that people aren’t being assessed adequately,” Venters said. “And then if that receiving screening picks up red flags, they’re not acted on in a way that reduces the risk of them having preventable death.”
Among those who took their own lives was a 19-year-old from Mexico who had been detained following a misdemeanor traffic stop while riding his scooter.
Another was a 36-year-old restaurant worker who lost contact with his relatives in Nicaragua after ICE detained him in Minnesota and sent him to a crowded camp in Texas. A third was a 45-year-old who had repeatedly crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and had a long criminal record.
One man’s story
Rayo, the man who took his own life after pleading to talk to his mother, was a veteran of the Colombian military who had worked as a street vendor in his home country. A week after he turned 26 in 2023, his family crossed the U.S. border in California. He was detained for three months before being permitted to settle with family in St. Louis, records and interviews show.
His mother, Adriana Garzon, said Rayo caught on quickly to life in the U.S., making friends easily and working as a housepainter and food delivery driver. He wanted to save money to hire a lawyer to help him stay in the country after a judge in 2024 ordered that he be sent back to Colombia, she said.
He was arrested in March 2025 by St. Louis police after being caught using a stolen credit card, which he had obtained from a friend, at a Vape shop, court records show. ICE then took him into custody. An ICE record obtained by AP classified Rayo as a laborer who was a low risk to public safety.
ICE placed Rayo in the Phelps County jail in Rolla, about 100 miles from St. Louis.
That jail had started taking ICE detainees a month before Rayo’s arrival. Sheriff Michael Kirn, a Republican in a county where voters overwhelmingly supported Mr. Trump’s reelection, told commissioners his department’s budget was hurting and partnering with ICE could generate millions in revenue.
Records show Rayo’s trouble started immediately. It took the jail 35 hours to conduct the initial medical screening that ICE promises within 12 hours, according to jail records obtained by the AP under the open records law.
Rayo exhibited labored breathing and told a nurse he was anxious and wanted mental health treatment.
A nurse who didn’t speak Spanish used a “handheld translator” to assess Rayo, concluding he denied thoughts of suicide and depression, according to the documents compiled by the Missouri State Highway Patrol during an investigation into Rayo’s death.
She recommended him for the general population, listing his physical and mental condition as stable, records show. And she referred him for a routine mental health appointment.
Two days later, he reported head pain and body aches. Staff learned he was positive for exposure to tuberculosis bacteria. He was sent to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was returned to jail the following day.
The mental health appointment was scheduled but canceled due to “mental health clinic time and staff,” a jail record shows. Two days later, they again canceled his appointment, this time citing his coronavirus infection.
The delays violated an ICE standard requiring mental health treatment within a week of a referral.
Bies, the DHS spokesperson, said Rayo received “high-quality medical care during his time in ICE custody.”
To ease his anxiety, Rayo called his mother before bed to share a Catholic blessing. “I gave him strength,” said Garzon, whose first name, Adriana, was tattooed on her son’s arm.
As Rayo grew sicker with nausea, chills and aches, staff moved him into a cinderblock isolation cell with a surveillance camera overhead for closer monitoring and to prevent the spread of disease. He was not allowed to call his mother.
On his fourth day of isolation, Rayo passed two notes under his door, begging guards to let him talk to his mom. In one, which was reviewed by AP, he appealed to the guard’s humanity. “I know you have family, and you know that they worry about us,” he wrote in Spanish. “God bless you.”
The English-speaking guard used a colleague’s phone to translate the notes, and wrote in a report that he planned to follow up.
Within an hour, guards found Rayo unconscious on his bed with a sheet around his neck.
Emergency responders tried to revive him, transporting him to a hospital. That’s when an official called Rayo’s mother – to let her know her son was in very bad shape and would be flown to a St. Louis medical center. At the hospital, a doctor gave her the devastating news: Her son was dead.
ICE contractors react to AP’s report
The deaths have revealed holes in treatment and oversight across ICE’s system, where the detained population has spiked by 50% to 60,000 during Mr. Trump’s second term.
Five died in centers run by longtime ICE detention partners, CoreCivic and the GEO Group. A sixth died at a camp operated by an inexperienced contractor that ICE has since replaced. Three died in jails run by sheriffs, and one at a federal prison.
“We are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care,” CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd said.
GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said the company trains staff on suicide prevention and seeks “to maintain a safe and secure environment in compliance with the standards and requirements set by the federal government.” Officials at the three jails either declined comment or didn’t return messages.
Leo Cruz Silva, a 34-year-old who had repeatedly illegally entered the country from Mexico, suffered an acute mental health crisis following his detention after an arrest for public intoxication last fall in a St. Louis suburb, records show.
For two nights in Missouri’s Ste. Genevieve County Jail, Cruz screamed, hid under his bed and reported hallucinations, according to an ICE report on his death. Yet he did not get help quickly.
A nurse ordered antipsychotic medications and planned to get him treatment the next week, the ICE report said.
On the third day, he was found dead in his cell.
Chaofeng Ge arrived in ICE custody last summer at a Pennsylvania facility run by the GEO Group in mental distress, having pleaded guilty to a minor gift card fraud and attempted suicide in state custody, said David Rankin, an attorney representing Ge’s family.
In five days at the facility, he did not get mental health treatment and was unable to communicate because no one spoke Mandarin, Rankin said. Ultimately, Ge went unmonitored before he was found hanged in a shower stall.
“Completely unacceptable”
“It’s clear that ICE has taken very few steps to ensure the safety of these people,” Rankin said. “They appear to want to make this process as cruel and inhuman as possible. It’s completely unacceptable.”
At Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, 36-year-old Victor Diaz died by suicide in a medical holding room in January, according to an ICE report. He had been moved into isolation after reporting harassment by fellow detainees, the report said.
Days earlier at the same facility, Geraldo Lunas Campos died of asphyxia after ICE said guards restrained him following a suicide attempt. His death was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner, and Trump administration officials said the FBI was investigating its circumstances.
ICE inspectors visited the facility in February, documenting 49 violations of detention standards at what was then ICE’s largest detention facility, according to their report.
The report found that staff did not record “required checks to prevent significant self-harm and suicide” while inspectors found tools and equipment unsecured and unaccounted for throughout the facility that could be used for harm. Calls to 911 show several other detainees had attempted suicide there.
At the time of the deaths and inspections, Acquisition Logistics was the contractor running the facility. ICE has since replaced Acquisition Logistics with another contractor. Acquisition Logistics did not return messages seeking comment.
This story involves a discussion of suicide.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.