A Cuban migrant held in a Texas immigration detention center died due to suffocation during an altercation with guards, as per an autopsy report released on Wednesday, which classified the death as a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four, passed away on January 3 following an incident with guards at the facility. Initially, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed that Lunas Campos was attempting suicide and that staff intervened to save him. However, a witness contradicted this, stating that multiple guards restrained Lunas Campos, leading to him losing consciousness.
According to ICE data, 30 detainees died in their custody last year, the highest in two decades. Within the first ten days of 2026, four immigrants, including Lunas Campos, died while under federal immigration custody. Lunas Campos’s demise marked the third death in less than two months at Camp East Montana in El Paso, located on the grounds of Fort Bliss.
The autopsy conducted by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed signs of a struggle on Lunas Campos’s body, including chest and knee abrasions, along with neck hemorrhages. Dr. Adam Gonzalez, the deputy medical examiner, determined that the cause of death was asphyxia due to compression on the neck and torso. The report mentioned that Lunas Campos became unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement, showing evidence of injuries associated with physical restraint.
The initial account provided by ICE did not mention any altercation with guards, stating that Lunas Campos had become disruptive and was moved to a segregated area where medical personnel later found him in distress. However, the autopsy report did not confirm a suicide attempt. It remains unclear whether the guards involved were government employees or employed by a private contractor.
Lunas Campos, who had been detained for his criminal convictions, was among the first detainees at Camp East Montana. He had been arrested in New York in July due to prior criminal convictions that made him eligible for deportation. New York court records revealed that Lunas Campos had previous convictions for sexual contact with a minor and drug-related offenses.
Following the release of the final autopsy report, DHS emphasized Lunas Campos’s criminal record, labeling him as a “convicted child sex predator.” DHS has not disclosed if any external law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident further.
