Tuan Van Bui, a 55-year-old man originally from Vietnam, died on April 1 at the Miami Correctional Center in Bunker Hill, Indiana, according to an ICE press release. Tuan Van Bui is the 15th detained death since January 1, 2026, and the 46th person to die in federal immigration custody during the current Trump administration. If Miami Correction Center rings a bell, it’s because Lorth Sim, a Cambodian national, also died at this facility just weeks ago in February.
In my post about the previous detained death, I said the following:
The rate of one death every 6.0 days this calendar year continues to hold with remarkably morbid precision. I can’t explain it, but it’s the weirdest, creepiest number I’ve seen in a long time. You rarely see things like this in immigration data, but it could not be more predictable right now: one immigrant dies in custody every six days.Not roughly one death per week. Not roughly one death every 6 days. One death every 6-point-zero days.Does anyone want to do the math with me on this one? January 1 to April 1 is 90 days. This is the 15th death of the year.
Perhaps this is worth a longer discussion somewhere else, but let me touch on this here. This is a perfectly morbid example of what social scientists mean when they talk about systemic violence. There are emergent patterns in the harm caused by systems that are built on the foundations of marginalisation and neglect, patterns that are often felt by people who are targeted and ignored by people in power. Yet there are times when the data itself punctuates the effects of systemic power in such a clear way that it is difficult to ignore. This is one of those times. ICE detention has become a horror movie on par with The Ring: we do not know precisely who will die, but someone will die in detention every six days. That is what systemic violence looks like, and if you really want to dive deep, I’d recommend Economies of Abandonment by Elizabeth Povinelli or Achille Mbembe’s work on necropolitics.
ICE’s response to detained deaths is a case study in how systems respond to the predictable consequences of their own willful (e.g., Alex Pretti) or neglectful (e.g., Tuan Van Bui) systems of dehumanization. ICE tries to weasel out of responsibility by making excuses for why every death is really the fault of the deceased rather than the predictable outcome of a civil detention system with no oversight and no guardrails. It’s not just detained deaths, either. Just listen to my conversation with Zain Lakhani about how ICE is treating detained pregnant women. For a longer discussion of what the official detention death toll leaves out, read my recent article “Beyond the Official ICE Detention Death Count.”
Back to the details of Tuan Van Bui. The Miami Correctional Center in Bunker Hill, Indiana, where he died is not a longstanding federal detention facility. The first group of ICE detainees arrived at Miami Correctional in early October 2025. Indiana officials approved $16 million for facility upgrades in September after the state signed an agreement allowing up to 1,000 immigrants to be held there. The state currently receives a daily payment of $291 per detainee, almost four times the $75 daily per-person cost for state inmates held there.
The facility data from Detention Reports as of February 5, 2026 shows that the facility’s population grew quickly to 577 people, all male. The facility type is listed as IGSA (Intergovernmental Service Agreement), meaning ICE is renting space from the Indiana Department of Correction. The average length of stay is 34 days. The facility was used to hold many people arrested during ICE’s controversial and at least partly illegal enforcement action titled Operation Midway Blitz.
My ongoing concern over whether facilities are able to meet the needs of rapidly-growing populations of people held in civil (not criminal) detention is reflected a recent congressional oversight visit by Rep. Lauren Underwood. Rep. Underwood found a pattern of systemic problems affecting the people detained at the Miami facility. Detainees said that ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System failed to notify families of their whereabouts in a timely way, that medical care was delayed and medication refills could take up to two months, and that ICE staff had lost one detainee’s belongings including personal photographs.
Basic needs were also poorly met. The only footwear provided were plastic clogs worn in all conditions including winter weather, breakfast was sometimes served as early as 3:30 AM disrupting sleep, and detainees reported being unable to purchase stamps or print legal materials despite staff claims to the contrary, which raises serious concerns about their ability to access legal representation and pursue their cases.