Migrant death in ICE custody ruled homicide

ICE's Camp East Montana near El Paso, Texas — ICE’s Camp East Montana near El Paso, Texas (Image credit: Paul Ratje / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What happened

The medical examiner’s office in El Paso County, Texas, on Wednesday officially ruled the Jan. 3 death of a Cuban migrant being held in solitary confinement at ICE’s Camp East Montana a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died of “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression” after witnesses saw him “become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement,” the coroner’s report said.

Who said what

The Department of Homeland Security initially said Lunas Campos died after “staff observed him in distress,” but amended its account last week after his family was informed the death would be ruled a homicide. Lunas Campos died after he “violently resisted” staff attempts to stop his “attempt to take his life,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said last Thursday.

Fellow detainee Santos Jesus Flores told The Washington Post last week that he saw guards choking Lunas Campos, who repeatedly said, “No puedo respirar,” or “I can’t breathe.” According to The Associated Press, a witness saw Lunas Campos “handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.” The homicide finding “does not necessarily indicate criminal culpability,” The New York Times said.

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What next?

U.S. District Judge David Briones on Wednesday granted a request from Lunas Campos’ family to bar the government from deporting the two detainees who came forward, saying the planned removals would make it difficult to “obtain the testimony of these witnesses” for the family’s wrongful death lawsuit. Lunas Campos is the “third detainee to die at Camp East Montana, a tent facility hastily built last summer at Fort Bliss,” The Texas Tribune said. Those deaths, which include another alleged suicide, are under investigation.

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.