"A 55-year-old Cuban "tried to hang himself," a federal contractor alerted emergency responders last month from a sprawling El Paso immigrant detention center. By the next day, records show that Geraldo Lunas Campos had died at the facility, marking the second fatality in weeks at the hastily constructed Fort Bliss Army tent structure known as Camp East Montana. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials attributed his death to "medical distress.""
"But the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide - he was suffocated. The autopsy found that Lunas Campos became "unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement." His death, which has so far prompted no criminal investigation or charges, has renewed scrutiny not only on that camp, but on conditions at the nearly two dozen ICE detention sites in Texas."
"In the span of just six weeks between December and January, six people died while detained by ICE in Texas - three of them at Camp East Montana. The deadly period began with a 48-year-old Guatemalan, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, who ICE said died on Dec. 3 of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention."
Multiple deaths occurred at ICE detention sites in Texas, including at the hastily built Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss. One detainee suffocated while being physically restrained, and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. Six people died in a six-week span, and three deaths were at Camp East Montana. ICE attributed at least one death to medical distress while records and autopsy findings point to restraint-related suffocation. Detention expansion coincides with overcrowding, understaffing, and diminished oversight, even though most detainees face civil immigration violations rather than criminal charges.
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