Courts and Civil Rights

The El Paso County medical examiner ruled the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos a homicide, citing "asphyxia due to neck and torso compression" while he was being physically restrained at ICE’s Camp East Montana, and documenting abrasions on the chest and knees, neck hemorrhages, and petechial hemorrhages in the eyelids and neck. An outside forensic pathologist said the injuries are consistent with pressure from a hand or knee on the neck; the autopsy notes antidepressant use and a history of bipolar disorder and anxiety but makes no mention of a suicide attempt, contradicting DHS/ICE’s evolving public explanations.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban detainee who died Jan. 3 at ICE’s Camp East Montana facility on Fort Bliss, has been described by ICE and a DHS official as having committed suicide after "resisting interventions," though ICE initially said he had "experienced medical distress." His children have filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas seeking to block the deportation of two detainees they say witnessed guards choking or struggling with Lunas Campos before his death, to preserve their testimony for a planned wrongful‑death suit. The family also says an El Paso medical examiner’s office employee told them the manner of death would be listed as homicide based on an audio recording they shared, a recording The New York Times could not independently verify, underscoring a major discrepancy with ICE’s account.