A Texas medical examiner is reportedly planning to classify the recent death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last summer, as a homicide, marking the latest apparent abuse at the hands of an agency that has been rampaging lawlessly through US communities at the behest of President Donald Trump.
As the Washington Post reported Friday, "An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’ daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation."
"The employee said a doctor there 'is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,' which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest," the newspaper added.
In an interview with the Post, one detainee at the sprawling El Paso detention center known as Camp East Montana said he witnessed "at least five guards struggling with Lunas Campos after he refused to enter the segregation unit, complaining that he didn’t have his medications."
The eyewitness, according to the Post, "said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly saying, 'No puedo respirar'—Spanish for 'I can't breathe.' Medical staff tried to resuscitate him for an hour, after which they took his body away."
Jeanette Pagan Lopez, the mother of two of Lunas Campos' children, told the Post that she was contacted by agents from the FBI who said they were investigating Lunas Campos' death.
“I know it’s a homicide,” Lopez told the newspaper. “The people that physically harmed him should be held accountable.”
US Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, wrote in response to the Post's reporting that "Geraldo Lunas Campos may have been murdered."
"So disturbing," Barragán added. "Republicans’ excessive funding of ICE and DHS, along with Trump’s pardons and claims of absolute immunity, are literally killing people. Republicans remain silent or are openly OK with this."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which has lied relentlessly about recent killings and other incidents involving ICE, claimed in a statement that Lunas Campos died after trying to take his own life.
“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness. Medical staff was immediately called and responded. After repeated attempts to resuscitate him, EMTs declared him deceased on the scene.”
Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, was detained last summer and died on January 3. Citing court records, the Post noted that "Lunas Campos was convicted of several crimes, including for aggravated assault with a weapon and, in 2003, first-degree sexual abuse involving a child under 11 years old."
"Be ready for the Trump admin to highlight this guy's lengthy criminal record to eliminate any sympathy for him, even though none of that justifies being choked to death by guards at a detention center," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
Lunas Campos is one of four people to die in ICE custody so far in 2026.
“ICE kills—full stop," said Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director at Detention Watch Network. "Whether ICE is targeting people in the streets, where they work or live or behind closed doors in one of its nearly 200 abuse-ridden detention centers across the country—ICE is an inherently violent agency jeopardizing families and community safety."
Camp East Montana, where Lunas Campos was reportedly killed, is a huge makeshift tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas.
Last month, the ACLU and other human rights groups demanded the immediate closure of the facility for immigrant detention, citing "accounts of horrific conditions, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations."
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jake Johnson.
Jake Johnson | Radio Free (2026-01-16T12:42:35+00:00) ‘ICE Kills’: Guards Reportedly Choked Man to Death at El Paso Detention Center. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/01/16/ice-kills-guards-reportedly-choked-man-to-death-at-el-paso-detention-center-2/
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