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As President Donald Trump launches a deadly bombing campaign in Iran that has killed more than 1,800 people, his administration is continuing to antagonize Iranians living within the United States as part of his mass deportation campaign.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced that Pejman Karshenas Najafabadi, a 59-year-old Iranian man who has lived in the U.S. since 1991, died while in the agency’s custody. Najafabadi was incarcerated for nearly a year in a rural Louisiana prison despite suffering from chronic heart disease. He is one of dozens to die in ICE custody since Trump took office, as the administration insists on jailing people facing deportation orders, including refugees and longtime U.S. residents.

ICE reported the death on March 6, five days after Najafabadi passed away at a hospital in rural Mississippi and six days after Trump began his war on Iran. ICE policy requires deaths to be reported publicly within 48 hours, one of many standards observers say the agency appears to be systemically ignoring.

Democratic lawmakers, civil rights groups, people jailed by ICE, and their family members have all reported medical neglect and other abuses in jails run by the agency and its contractors for months now. Immigrant rights groups have said those waiting for immigration hearings should not be incarcerated in the first place — especially if they have health problems.

ICE noted Najafabadi’s history of blood infection and heart disease during an initial health screening when he was detained in April 2025. According to the agency’s statement upon his death, an immigration judge had previously ordered Najafabadi’s removal in 2014, but he was released on court supervision because officials could not deport him to Iran at the time.

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ICE said Najafabadi received a second health screening for chronic illness on October 25, 2025 and a third on February 20, 2026, when staff transferred him to a specialty hospital outside of the prison. He died of heart failure nine days later. At least 11 people have died in ICE custody so far in 2026, and at least 32 died in 2025 as Trump’s crackdown ramped up. Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said Najafabadi’s death is “deeply disturbing.”

“It is highly possible, if not likely, that the terrible conditions at ICE facilities played a role in Mr. Najafabadi’s declining conditions and death,” Costello said.

The Trump administration has revoked and suspended programs for refugees from countries around the world, including Iran, while making incarceration mandatory for people waiting to see an immigration judge. Bond or bail is not available, so immigration attorneys are filing a deluge of habeas corpus petitions that are overwhelming federal courts. As a result, the population of ICE’s network of jails and prison camps has exploded as lawmakers and........

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