ICE Detention and In‑Custody Deaths

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.