A Cuban immigrant held in solitary confinement in a Texas immigration detention center died after guards arrested him and stopped breathing, an autopsy report released Wednesday ruled the death a homicide.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died on January 3 in an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially said the 55-year-old father of four was trying to kill himself and officers tried to save him.
But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed and held down by at least five guards, one of whom put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he passed out.
At least 30 people died in ICE custody last year, agency statistics show. In the year In the first 10 days of 2026, four immigrants, including Lunas Campos, died while in federal immigration custody.
Lunas Campos’ death is the third in less than two months at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tented facility on the desert grounds of Fort Bliss, a military base near El Paso.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Nome and ICE Director Todd M. Lyons called on Congress about the latest deaths.
“DHS must preserve all evidence — including ending efforts to deport the witnesses,” Escobar said Wednesday. “I am again calling for the closure of Camp East Montana and the termination of its contract with the corporation that runs it.”
Asphyxia is the cause of death, says the medical examiner
An autopsy report by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Lunas Campos’ body showed signs of a struggle, including lacerations to the chest and knees. He was also bleeding from his neck.
Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Adam Gonzalez determined the cause of death to be asphyxiation due to compression of the neck and body.
The report said witnesses saw Lunas Campos “responding to being physically restrained by law enforcement.”
He did not elaborate on what happened during the fight, but cited evidence of injuries to his neck, head and body associated with physical restraints. The report also mentions petechial hemorrhages – tiny spots of blood that can be related to high pressure or injury from ruptured capillaries – on the eyelids and the skin of the neck.
For A.P. Forensic pathologist Dr. Victor Wade, who reviewed the autopsy report, said the presence of petechiae in the eye supported the conclusion that asphyxia caused death. Those injuries put stress on the body and are often associated with such deaths, he said.
He said the contusions on Lunas Campos’ body could reflect physical restraints and the neck injuries were consistent with a hand or knee to the neck.
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The initial ICE report of the death, which did not mention an altercation with guards, said Lunas Campos became agitated and staff moved him to a cell where detainees were kept away from others.
The agency said in a statement on Jan. 9 that “while in the process of identification, crews observed the victim in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance.” “Medical personnel responded, initiated life-saving measures and requested emergency medical services.”
Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.
The autopsy did not indicate an attempted suicide.
It was not immediately clear whether the bodyguards present when Lunas Campos died were government employees or private contractors.
Last Thursday, after Lunas Campos’ family was first told that the death might have been a homicide, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin revised the government’s account, saying that he tried to kill himself and guards tried to help him.
“The campos resisted the security personnel violently and continued to try to end his life,” she said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
The medical examiner’s final homicide determination will be critical in determining whether any guards are criminally or civilly liable. The fact that Lunas Campos died in the military may limit the legal authority of state and local authorities to investigate.
We reported in August that a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate Camp East Montana, expected to be the largest prison in the United States, was awarded to a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home in Richmond, Va. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no prior experience operating a correctional facility and subcontracted the company to other companies.
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ICE previously announced that on December 3, 2025, an immigrant from Guatemala who was detained at Camp East Montana died after being taken to an El Paso hospital for care. The agency said 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar-Andres died of liver and kidney failure.
On Sunday, ICE announced that 36-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant Victor Manuel Diaz died on Jan. 14 at Camp East, Montana, in a “suspected suicide.” The agency said Diaz was arrested by ICE earlier this month during an immigration raid in Minneapolis.
After conviction, he was recommended for exile
Lunas Campos was among the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East after ICE arrested him in September in Rochester, NY, where he had lived for more than two decades. In the year He entered the United States legally in 1996 as part of a wave of Cuban immigrants seeking to reach Florida by boat.
A felony conviction that ICE picked up as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation in July made him eligible for removal.
New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of having sex with a person under the age of 11, a crime that earned him a one-year prison sentence and placed him on the state’s sex offender registry.
Lunas Campos was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release in 2009 after being convicted of trying to sell a controlled substance, according to New York corrections records. He completed his sentence in January 2017.
After the final autopsy report was released Wednesday, DHS McLaughlin released a statement emphasizing that Lunas Campos is a “criminal illegal alien and convicted child sex predator.”
DHS did not respond to questions about whether any foreign law enforcement agencies were also investigating.