Homicide finding at odds with ICE report on detainee’s death
The death of a Cuban migrant at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas has been ruled a homicide caused by a violent encounter with guards. The finding conflicts with earlier statements by federal officials.
Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana, an ICE detention center in El Paso. In an autopsy report, Dr. Adam Gonzalez, the deputy medical examiner for El Paso County, wrote that Lunas Campos died of “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” according to The Associated Press.
Lunas Campos’ body showed signs of a struggle, with abrasions on his chest and knees. The autopsy also found hemorrhages in his neck.
Gonzalez’s report said witnesses saw Lunas Campos “become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement.” The injuries to his neck, head and torso were associated with physical restraint, Gonzalez wrote.
The report also said Lunas Campos’ body had the presence of petechial hemorrhages in the skin of his neck and eyelids. These are small spots of blood from burst capillaries associated with intense strain or injury.
Although the medical examiner ruled the case a homicide, that does not mean that Lunas Campos was intentionally killed — only that his death was caused by another.
Lunas Campos is one of at least six immigrants who have died in ICE custody this month. At least two of the deaths — one in Texas and one in Georgia — were apparent suicides, the agency said.
What was DHS’s response?
Authorities initially said Lunas Campos died in solitary confinement after “staff observed him in distress.” But ICE did not say how he died.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, later said Lunas Campos tried to take his life and guards tried to stop him.
“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” McLaughlin said, according to The Washington Post. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
DHS did not respond to a request for comment from Straight Arrow News.
‘I cannot breathe’
Two detainees in the El Paso facility told The Post that they saw at least five guards struggling with Lunas Campos, who apparently had refused to enter his cell because he had not received his medication.
One of them, Santos Jesus Flores, said guards choked Lunas Campos as the struggle continued.
“He said, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe,’” Flores told The Post. “After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore, and that’s it.”
Both of the detainees who spoke to The Post have criminal records, and the newspaper reported that the Trump administration has taken steps to deport both men since Lunas Campos’ death. However, a federal judge granted a request by lawyers representing the family of Lunas Campos to temporarily prohibit their deportation.
U.S. District Judge David Briones said in his order that deporting the two men would make it more difficult to “obtain the testimony of these witnesses.”
Who was Lunas Campos?
Lunas Campos had been in ICE custody since his arrest on July 14, 2025, in Rochester, New York, and had been held at the El Paso facility since September. He entered the U.S. illegally in 1996, the agency said.
He had been convicted of 10 crimes, ICE said, including sexual contact with a child under 11 in 2003. While some of the convictions were for misdemeanors, such as reckless driving, he also had been found guilty of criminal possession of a weapon and possession of a controlled substance.
In announcing his death, ICE referred to Lunas Campos as an “aggravated felon and convicted child sex offender.”
The autopsy report said he had a history of bipolar disorder and anxiety. A toxicology report detected two medications in his system: the antidepressant trazodone and the antihistamine hydroxyzine.
Have others died in ICE custody?
ICE is congressionally required to publicize all reports regarding deaths of people in its custody within 90 days, but its policy states officials must issue a press release two days after the death occurs. Officials did not announce Lunas Campos’ death for five days.
ICE says 18 people died in custody in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2025. However, other reports state a death count that is almost double ICE’s official report. The Guardian reports at least 32 died in ICE custody in 2025, making it the deadliest year in more than two decades.
Some died of seizure, heart failure or respiratory failure. Other deaths were reported as suicide.
Other reports state lower death tolls. NPR reports 20 people died in ICE custody in 2025, closer to ICE’s official reporting.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
