diff --git a/.changelog/13301.txt b/.changelog/13301.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..61700f698059
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/13301.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+csi: Allow volume claims on lost or garbage collected nodes to be freed
+```
diff --git a/nomad/csi_endpoint.go b/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
index 89a0af1d5f3e..7286450d19cc 100644
--- a/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
+++ b/nomad/csi_endpoint.go
@@ -686,6 +686,25 @@ RELEASE_CLAIM:
 
 func (v *CSIVolume) nodeUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *structs.CSIVolumeClaim) error {
 	v.logger.Trace("node unpublish", "vol", vol.ID)
+
+	store := v.srv.fsm.State()
+
+	// If the node has been GC'd or is down, we can't send it a node
+	// unpublish. We need to assume the node has unpublished at its
+	// end. If it hasn't, any controller unpublish will potentially
+	// hang or error and need to be retried.
+	if claim.NodeID != "" {
+		node, err := store.NodeByID(memdb.NewWatchSet(), claim.NodeID)
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if node == nil || node.Status == structs.NodeStatusDown {
+			v.logger.Debug("skipping node unpublish for down or GC'd node")
+			claim.State = structs.CSIVolumeClaimStateNodeDetached
+			return v.checkpointClaim(vol, claim)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if claim.AllocationID != "" {
 		err := v.nodeUnpublishVolumeImpl(vol, claim)
 		if err != nil {
@@ -698,8 +717,7 @@ func (v *CSIVolume) nodeUnpublishVolume(vol *structs.CSIVolume, claim *structs.C
 	// The RPC sent from the 'nomad node detach' command or GC won't have an
 	// allocation ID set so we try to unpublish every terminal or invalid
 	// alloc on the node, all of which will be in PastClaims after denormalizing
-	state := v.srv.fsm.State()
-	vol, err := state.CSIVolumeDenormalize(memdb.NewWatchSet(), vol)
+	vol, err := store.CSIVolumeDenormalize(memdb.NewWatchSet(), vol)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go b/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
index 84fae9a48de3..9646590729f6 100644
--- a/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
+++ b/nomad/csi_endpoint_test.go
@@ -504,22 +504,32 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 	type tc struct {
 		name           string
 		startingState  structs.CSIVolumeClaimState
+		nodeID         string
 		expectedErrMsg string
 	}
 	testCases := []tc{
 		{
 			name:          "success",
 			startingState: structs.CSIVolumeClaimStateControllerDetached,
+			nodeID:        node.ID,
 		},
 		{
 			name:           "unpublish previously detached node",
 			startingState:  structs.CSIVolumeClaimStateNodeDetached,
 			expectedErrMsg: "could not detach from controller: controller detach volume: No path to node",
+			nodeID:         node.ID,
+		},
+		{
+			name:           "unpublish claim on garbage collected node",
+			startingState:  structs.CSIVolumeClaimStateTaken,
+			expectedErrMsg: "could not detach from controller: controller detach volume: No path to node",
+			nodeID:         uuid.Generate(),
 		},
 		{
 			name:           "first unpublish",
 			startingState:  structs.CSIVolumeClaimStateTaken,
 			expectedErrMsg: "could not detach from controller: controller detach volume: No path to node",
+			nodeID:         node.ID,
 		},
 	}
 
@@ -545,7 +555,7 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 
 			// setup: create an alloc that will claim our volume
 			alloc := mock.BatchAlloc()
-			alloc.NodeID = node.ID
+			alloc.NodeID = tc.nodeID
 			alloc.ClientStatus = structs.AllocClientStatusFailed
 
 			index++
@@ -554,7 +564,7 @@ func TestCSIVolumeEndpoint_Unpublish(t *testing.T) {
 			// setup: claim the volume for our alloc
 			claim := &structs.CSIVolumeClaim{
 				AllocationID:   alloc.ID,
-				NodeID:         node.ID,
+				NodeID:         tc.nodeID,
 				ExternalNodeID: "i-example",
 				Mode:           structs.CSIVolumeClaimRead,
 			}