Dad-of-two ‘suffocates to dying’ in ICE detention centre after ‘5 guards soar on him’

A Cuban immigrant died in a Texas immigration detention facility earlier this month during an altercation with guards, with the local medical examiner indicating the death will likely be classified as a homicide

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A Cuban immigrant tragically died in an ICE Texas immigration detention centre earlier this month, during a confrontation with guards, and the local medical examiner has suggested that his death will likely be deemed a homicide.

But, the US government claimed Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death on January 3 was caused by the detainee attempting suicide, while staff tried to intervene.

A witness claimed that Lunas Campos died after being handcuffed, tackled by guards and put in a chokehold until he passed out. The immigrant’s family was informed by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday that a preliminary post-mortem report indicated the death was a homicide resulting from asphyxia due to chest and neck compression, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the Associated Press.

The death and conflicting accounts have heightened scrutiny into the conditions of immigration jails at a time when the government has been rounding up immigrants in large numbers around the country and detaining them at facilities like the one in El Paso, where Lunas Campos died. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is legally obliged to issue public notification of detainee deaths. Last week, it announced that Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four and registered sex offender, had died at Camp East Montana, but made no mention of him being involved in a scuffle with staff immediately before his death.

In response to queries from the AP, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, on Thursday revised its account of Lunas Campos’ death, confirming he attempted to take his own life.

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“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”

Speaking before DHS updated its version of events, fellow detainee Santos Jesús Flores, 47, from El Salvador, said he saw the incident unfold through his cell window in the special housing unit, where inmates are kept in isolation for disciplinary breaches.

“He didn’t want to enter the cell where they were going to put him,” Flores told the AP on Thursday, speaking in Spanish from a phone in the facility. “Then the guards grabbed him and, well, they grabbed him and they killed him. The last thing he said was that he couldn’t breathe.”

Camp Montana East is a vast tent facility hurriedly erected in the desert on Fort Bliss Army base land. The $1.2billion (£900m) facility, set to become the largest detention centre in the US, was being constructed and run by a private contractor based in a residential house in Richmond, Virginia.

The firm, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no previous experience operating a corrections facility. It remains unclear whether the guards on duty at the time of Lunas Campos’ death were government employees or staff from a private contractor. Emails sent to Acquisition Logistics executives on Thursday seeking comment went unanswered.

Lunas Campos was one of the first detainees transferred to Camp Montana East, having arrived in September following his arrest by ICE in Rochester, New York, where he had resided for more than 20 years. He legally entered the US in 1996, as part of an influx of Cuban immigrants attempting to reach Florida by boat.

ICE stated that he was apprehended in July during a scheduled immigration enforcement operation due to criminal convictions that made him eligible for deportation. New York court records reveal that Lunas Campos was found guilty in 2003 of sexual contact with an individual under 11, a felony for which he served a year in jail and was added to the state’s sex offender registry.

In addition, Lunas Campos was sentenced to five years behind bars and three years of supervision in 2009 after being convicted of attempting to sell a controlled substance, according to New York corrections records. He completed this sentence in January 2017.

On the day of his death, ICE claimed that Lunas Campos became unruly while queuing for medication and refused to return to his assigned dormitory. Consequently, he was moved to the segregation block.

“While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance,” the agency said in its January 9 statement. “Medical staff responded, initiated lifesaving measures, and requested emergency medical services.”

Lunas Campos was declared dead following the arrival of paramedics.

Flores claimed that account left out crucial details – Lunas Campos was already in handcuffs when at least five guards restrained him on the floor, with at least one wrapping his arm around the detainee’s neck. Within roughly five minutes, Flores said, Lunas Campos had stopped moving.

“After he stopped breathing, they removed the handcuffs,” Flores said. Flores has no legal representation and said he has already agreed to deportation to his home country.

Whilst he acknowledged the risk in speaking to the AP, Flores said he wanted to draw attention to the fact that “in this place, guards abuse people a lot”. He said several detainees in the unit witnessed the incident, and security cameras should have recorded what happened. Flores also said investigators had not spoken to him.

DHS did not respond to questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed when they say he attempted suicide, or precisely how he had tried to take his own life.

“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming.”

DHS has remained tight-lipped on whether other agencies are involved in the investigation. The El Paso medical examiner’s office confirmed on Thursday that an autopsy had been carried out, but declined to comment further.

A final ruling of homicide by the medical examiner would typically be pivotal in determining whether any guards face criminal or civil liability. If such deaths are ruled accidental or anything other than homicide, they’re less likely to spark criminal investigations, while proving civil wrongful death lawsuits becomes more challenging.

The fact that Lunas Campos died on an Army base could also restrict state and local officials’ legal jurisdiction to investigate. A spokesperson for the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Thursday about whether it was involved in an investigation.

The issue of inmates and other detainees dying after officers restrain them face down, applying pressure to their backs and necks, has plagued law enforcement for decades.

A 2024 AP investigation documented hundreds of deaths during police encounters where individuals were restrained in a prone position. Many uttered “I can’t breathe” before suffocating, according to numerous body camera and bystander videos. Authorities often attempt to shift the blame for such deaths onto preexisting medical conditions or drug use.

Dr Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist who has studied prone restraint deaths, said the preliminary autopsy ruling of homicide indicates guards’ actions caused Lunas Campos’ death, but does not mean they intended to kill. He said the medical examiner’s office could come under pressure to stop short of calling it a homicide, but will probably “stick to its guns.

“This probably passes the ‘but for’ test. ‘But for’ the actions of the officers, he would not have died. For us, that’s generally a homicide,” he said.

Jeanette Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos’ two youngest children, said the day after he died the medical examiner’s office rang to inform her that his body was at the county morgue. She immediately contacted ICE to find out what happened.

Pagan-Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said the assistant director of the El Paso ICE field office eventually rang her back. She said the official told her the cause of death was still pending and they were awaiting toxicology report results.

He also told her the only way Lunas Campos’ body could be returned to Rochester free of charge was if she consented to his being cremated, she said. Pagan-Lopez declined and is now seeking help from family and friends to raise the money needed to transport his body home and pay for a funeral.

After struggling to obtain details about the circumstances of his death from ICE, Pagan-Lopez said she received a call from a detainee at Camp Montana East who then connected her with Flores, who first informed her about the confrontation with guards. Since then, she said she has repeatedly contacted ICE, but is no longer receiving a response. Pagan-Lopez, who is a US citizen, said she also rang the FBI twice, where an agent took her information and then ended the call.

Pagan-Lopez said she and Lunas Campos were together for about 15 years before separating eight years ago. She described him as a devoted father who, until his detention, had been working in a minimum-wage job at a furniture shop, the only work she said he could secure due to his criminal record.

She said that in the family’s final phone call the week after Christmas, Lunas Campos spoke to his children about his expected deportation back to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island, so that he could remain in their lives.

“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Pagan-Lopez said. “I just want justice, and his body here. That’s all I want.”