In a recent social media post, Foreign Minister Anita Anand stated that Canada is “urgently looking for more details” concerning the death of a 49-year-old Canadian national while under the care of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Miami.
According to The Washington Post, Johnny Noviello, who became a U.S. permanent resident in 1991, was found unresponsive at a federal detention center where he was being detained “pending removal proceedings,” according to an ICE statement. The cause of his death is under investigation.
Noviello was convicted of racketeering and drug trafficking in 2023 and sentenced to 12 years prison. On May 15, he was arrested by ICE and charged with removability due to controlled substance convictions.
“Medical staff responded immediately and began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator shock and called 911,” ICE said in the statement, adding that “comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay.”
ICE data shows 7 other individuals have died in its custody this year, while 11 such deaths were last year. Florida lawmakers called for a transparent investigation after a 44-year-old Haitian immigrant died in ICE custody in April.
Detentions Surged by More than 50 Percent
A report made by Wired revealed that ICE detention facilities are operating over capacity. Detention has surged by more than 48 percent since January, pushing the detained population to over 59,000—an all-time high, according to available data. The 2025 emergency call data also reflects conditions before ICE’s latest enforcement surge—a May directive from Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller to triple daily arrests. Accordingly, the crises documented here are likely to deepen.
In pursuit of its eventual goal of detaining 100,000 people simultaneously, the agency is targeting not just high-priority criminal offenders, but those who report, check in, and otherwise follow the law.
The result has stretched the detention system to its limit. ICE has responded by offloading detainees into federal penitentiaries and tent-like barracks in detention camps, while issuing a wave of no-bid contracts—financial windfalls for private prison giants like The GEO Group and CoreCivic, which operate the vast majority of the facilities named in this report.
The human cost of ICE’s strategy is increasingly visible. Dispatch data from 911 calls reveal how quickly medical emergencies can spiral inside these remote, crowded facilities—places where urgent care delivery is often delayed, falls on overworked staff, or is hindered by “insufficient or malfunctioning” equipment.
Trump’s Aggressive Crackdown on Migration
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has prioritized immigration enforcement, especially at the US-Mexico border. He issued a series of executive orders that include declaring a national emergency at the southern border and deploying hundreds of troops there.
This has caused widespread panic and confusion in immigrant communities. Trump has promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants and directed U.S. ICE agents to ramp up arrests from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500.
The administration has also largely closed access to the asylum process, suspended refugee resettlement and ended temporary humanitarian protections for about 350,000 Venezuelans who sought refuge in the United States. These policies have created widespread panic and confusion in immigrant communities across the country.
To meet these goals, the administration has enlisted personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. To quickly increase ICE’s detention capacity, the administration has begun to send migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Advocacy groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union and others have filed lawsuits over Trump’s policies, with lawyers challenging the administration’s claim of an “invasion” on the border and expelling migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.