ICE said ‘medical distress’; examiner cites possible homicide — here’s what we know about Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death in custody

The death of a man held at a federal detention camp in Texas in early January may be investigated as a homicide after the local medical examiner reportedly found the preliminary cause was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression”.Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July last year, was pronounced dead on 3 January. He was in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, a tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.In a press release about his death, ICE claimed he died after “experiencing medical distress” and said his cause of death was under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security had previously highlighted Lunas Campos’s arrest as one of the “worst of the worst”, a category used by DHS to trumpet what they claim as victories of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

He had convictions of child sexual abuse, possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault.However, in a recording reviewed and first reported on by the Washington Post, the El Paso county’s office of the medical examiner reportedly told a member of Lunas Campos’s family that the office was preparing to classify the death as a homicide, subject to results of a toxicology report.Lunas Campos was one of four ICE detainees who died while in custody in the first 10 days of the year and his death was part of a trend in which 2025 was the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades.

According to a Guardian investigation, last December was the deadliest month, with six fatalities.He was also at least the second person housed at the camp, which has repeatedly come under fire from human rights groups for reports of abuse and inhumane conditions, to die in recent months. Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a 48-year-old Guatemalan man who had also been held at Fort Bliss, died in hospital after health complications late last year.ICE officials and the county of El Paso’s medical examiner could not be reached for comment on whether Lunas Campos’s death would be officially classified as a homicide. A representative of the office responded to the El Paso Times saying that the autopsy report was still pending and not publicly available.ICE said in its press release that Lunas Campos had been put into segregation after he became “disruptive while in line for medication”.

Officials said staff “observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance”. Medical responders pronounced him deceased at 10.16pm.Witnesses detained with Lunas Campos told the Washington Post a different account. Santos Jesus Flores, who was detained at the camp, said he saw five guards choking Lunas Campos as he struggled after resisting being taken to the segregation unit because he did not have his medications.During the struggle, Jesus Flores said he heard Lunas Campos repeatedly say in Spanish that he could not breathe.“He said, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore and that’s it,” Flores told the Post.