Family Says Guards Killed Cuban Detainee at Fort Bliss, Seeks to Halt Deportation of Witnesses

The family of Cuban immigrant Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died Jan. 3 in ICE custody at Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss Army base near El Paso, has filed in federal court to block the deportation of two fellow detainees they say witnessed guards fatally choking or struggling with him. The motion in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas is intended to keep those men available to testify in a planned wrongful‑death lawsuit, and it directly contradicts the government’s shifting account of how Lunas Campos died. ICE initially said on Jan. 9 that he died after 'experiencing medical distress,' while a DHS official later told reporters he died by suicide and that he 'resisted interventions from security staff' who were trying to save him before he stopped breathing. The family also cites a recorded call in which an employee of the El Paso medical examiner’s office allegedly said the death would be classified as a homicide—a claim The New York Times could not independently verify—adding to public skepticism about official explanations for in‑custody deaths at the Fort Bliss encampment. The case intensifies broader concern, already prominent in activist circles online, that ICE is moving to deport potential witnesses even as questions mount over use of force and medical care in Trump‑era detention facilities.