WASHINGTON (AP) — A Cuban immigrant died earlier this month in a Texas immigration detention center during an altercation with guards, and the local medical examiner has indicated that his death will be classified as a homicide.
The federal government has given differing accounts of the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, saying the inmate attempted suicide and that staff tried to save him.
A witness told The Associated Press that Lunas Campos died after being handcuffed, tackled by guards and placed in a chokehold until he lost consciousness. The immigrant’s family was told Wednesday by the El Paso County medical examiner’s office that a preliminary autopsy report said the death was a homicide caused by chest and neck compressions, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the AP.
The deaths and conflicting accounts have intensified scrutiny of conditions in immigration jails as the government rounds up large numbers of immigrants across the country and incarcerates them in facilities like the one in El Paso, where Lunas Campos died.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is legally required to issue public notice of detainee deaths. Last week, it said Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four and registered sex offender, died at Camp East Montana, but made no mention of having been involved in an altercation with staff before his death.
In response to questions from the AP, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, on Thursday revised its account of Lunas Campos’ death, saying he tried to kill himself.
“Campos violently resisted security personnel and continued to attempt to take his own life,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
In an interview before DHS updated its account, detainee Santos Jesus Flores, 47, of El Salvador, said he witnessed the incident from his cell window in a special housing unit, where detainees are isolated for disciplinary infractions.
“They don’t want to enter the room where they put him,” Flores told the AP on Thursday, speaking in Spanish by phone at the facility. “The last thing he said was he couldn’t breathe.”
Camp Montana was among the first to be sent east
Camp Montana East is a sprawling tent facility built in the desert immediately on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base. The AP reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility, expected to be the largest detention facility in the United States, was being built and operated by a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no prior experience running a correctional facility.
It was not immediately clear whether the guards present when Lunas Campos died were government employees or private contractors. Emails seeking comment Thursday from Acquisition Logistics executives did not receive a response.
Lunas Campos was among the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East, arriving in September after ICE arrested him in Rochester, New York, where he had lived for more than two decades. He was admitted to the U.S. legally in 1996, part of a wave of Cuban immigrants trying to reach Florida by boat.
ICE said he was picked up in July as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation that made him eligible for removal because of criminal convictions.
New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of having sex with a person under the age of 11, a crime for which he was sentenced to a year in prison and placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
Lunas Campos was also sentenced in 2009 to five years in prison and three years of supervision after pleading guilty to attempting to sell a controlled substance, according to New York corrections records. He completed his sentence in January 2017.
Lunas Campos’ adult daughter says child sex abuse allegations are false, as part of contentious custody battle
“My father was not a child molester,” said 25-year-old Carrie Lunas. He was a good father. He was human.”
Disputed Accounts
On the day he died, according to ICE, Lunas Campos became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dormitory. He was then taken to the segregation block.
“While in isolation, staff saw him in distress and contacted on-site medics for assistance,” the agency said in a Jan. 9 statement. “Medical personnel responded, initiated life-saving measures, and requested emergency medical services.”
Lunas Campos was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.
Flores said the account omitted key details — that Lunas Campos was already handcuffed when at least five guards pinned him to the ground, and that at least one squeezed his hand around the detainee’s neck.
Within about five minutes, Flores said, Lunas Campos was no longer running.
“After he stopped breathing, they removed the handcuffs,” Flores said.
Flores is not represented by a lawyer and said he has already agreed to be deported to his home country. Although he admitted he was taking a risk by talking to the AP, Flores said he wanted to highlight that “in this place, the guards abuse people a lot.”
He said several inmates in the unit witnessed the fight, and security cameras there must have captured the incidents. Flores also said investigators did not interview him.
DHS did not answer questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed as he tried to kill himself or exactly how he tried to kill himself.
“ICE takes the health and safety of everyone in our custody very seriously,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming.”
DHS did not say whether other agencies are investigating. The El Paso medical examiner’s office confirmed Thursday that it had performed an autopsy, but declined further comment.
A final determination of homicide by the medical examiner will generally be important in determining whether any guards are criminally or civilly liable. When such deaths are ruled accidental or anything other than homicide, they are less likely to trigger a criminal investigation, while civil wrongful death cases are harder to prove.
The fact that Lunas Campos died on a military base may also limit the legal jurisdiction of state and local authorities to investigate. A spokesman for the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Thursday on whether it was involved in the investigation.
Deaths of inmates and other detainees after officers grabbed their faces and applied pressure to their backs and necks to restrain them have been a problem in law enforcement for decades. A 2024 AP investigation documented hundreds of deaths during police encounters in which people were restrained in prone positions. Many said “I can’t breathe” before choking, according to body camera and scores of bystander videos. Authorities often try to shift the blame for such deaths to pre-existing medical conditions or drug use.
Dr. Victor Weedon, a forensic pathologist who has studied prone restraint deaths, said a preliminary autopsy ruling of homicide indicated the guards’ actions caused Lunas Campos’ death, but that did not mean they intended to kill. He said the medical examiner’s office may come under pressure to stop ruling it a homicide, but will likely “stick to its guns.”
“It probably passes the ‘but for’ test. ‘But for’ the actions of the officers, he would not have died. For us, it’s usually murder,” he said.
‘I want justice, and her body is here’
Janet Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos’ two youngest children, said the day after he died the medical examiner’s office called to inform her that his body was in the county morgue. She immediately called ICE to find out what happened.
Pagan-Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said the assistant director of the El Paso ICE field office eventually called her back. She said authorities told her the cause of death was still pending and they were awaiting the results of a toxicology report. She said the only way Lunas Campos’ body could be returned to Rochester for free was if he agreed to cremate her, she said.
Pagan-Lopez refused and is now seeking help from family and friends to raise the money needed to send his body home and pay for the funeral.
After failing to get details about the circumstances surrounding his death from ICE, Pagan-Lopez said she received a call from a detainee at Camp Montana East who put her in touch with Flores, who told her about the altercation with guards.
Since then, she said she has repeatedly called ICE but has not received a response. Pagan-Lopez, who is a U.S. citizen, said she also called the FBI twice, where an agent took her information and then hung up.
Pagan-Lopez said she and Lunas Campos were together for about 15 years before breaking up eight years ago. She described him as an attentive father who, until his custody, worked a minimum-wage job at a furniture store, the only employment he could find because of his criminal record.
She said that in the family’s last phone call a week after Christmas, Lunas Campos talked about the expected deportation of her children back to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island, so he could be in their lives.
“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Pagan-Lopez said. “I want justice, and her body is here. That’s all I want.”
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Attanasio reported from Seattle and Foley from Iowa City.
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/
