The death of a Nicaraguan man at a troubled Texas detention camp was reported as a suicide, 911 records show

The Associated Press (AP) – A Nicaraguan man who died in a troubled Texas detention camp days after being detained by immigration agents in Minnesota appears to have died by suicide, according to a 911 call and records released Wednesday.

Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, was found by guards in a room at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 14 after he attempted suicide, a camp official reported on a 911 call obtained by The Associated Press through a public information request.

“They were making rounds and they just found him with his pants tied around his neck, I believe,” said the caller, who identified himself as Luis Gonzalez, a health administrator.

Diaz’s death was at least the third at Camp East Montana, a detention facility opened last year at Fort Bliss to house 5,000 prisoners in the desert near the U.S.-Mexico border. Lawyers for the detainees have alleged violence, abuse and neglect at the camp. Earlier, the death of one person has been ruled as murder.

Randall Kalinen, a lawyer for Diaz’s family, said they are skeptical of claims that his death was a suicide because he was not depressed and would have been reunited with his mother, two sons and siblings in Nicaragua if he had been deported.

“Even if it was suicide, was there anything that forced him to kill himself?” Kalin asked. “There is still an investigation to be done.”

Messages seeking comment were left with ICE on Wednesday.

Gonzalez did not witness Diaz’s suicide attempt. A separate emergency medical services report released Wednesday indicated Diaz was suspected of hanging from the bed. Federal authorities have not released autopsy findings, but have called the death a “presumed suicide.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Diaz on Jan. 6 as agents searched Minneapolis for people who were in the country illegally. He was then sent to a tent complex in Texas.

Diaz crossed the US-Mexico border in 2024, requested asylum and was released. A judge later ordered his removal after he failed to show up for an immigration hearing, according to ICE.

Relatives in Nicaragua lost contact with Diaz after he went to work at a suburban restaurant on January 6 and later learned he was in custody. They received a call from ICE on January 15th that Diaz was dead. Family members were “in disbelief,” said Carlos Morales, board president of the Texas Nicaraguan Community, a nonprofit that helped the family raise money to return Diaz’s remains to Nicaragua.

A coalition of groups and a Democratic congresswoman representing El Paso have called for the closure of Camp East Montana.

Some of those calls came after the Jan. 3 death of 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban native. A medical examiner ruled it a homicide, citing physical restraint by the guard.

A witness described guards handcuffing Lunas Campos to the ground, one holding him in a chokehold until he could no longer breathe. ICE said guards tried to help Lunas Campos after she attempted suicide and she resisted them. A camp official initially told the police that it was a suicide.

Lawyers for Lunas Campos’ family have asked a judge for an emergency order to stop ICE from deporting detainees who witnessed the struggle.

ICE, which oversees the camp, announced Diaz’s death on Jan. 18, saying security personnel “found Diaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room.” The agency said he “died by suicide” but the cause is still under investigation.

In addition to Lunas Campos and Diaz, ICE announced that a Guatemalan immigrant at Camp East Montana died on Dec. 3 after being transported to an El Paso hospital for care. The agency said 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar-Andres is suspected to have died of liver and kidney failure.

Unlike the two previous deaths, Diaz’s body was not sent to the county medical examiner in El Paso for an autopsy. Kalinen said an Armed Forces pathologist conducted the autopsy at Fort Bliss, and he has been told it could take months to release the findings.

The 911 caller in this case told the dispatcher that a team of doctors and nurses were trying to resuscitate Diaz after a suicide attempt and that they needed an ambulance.

Paramedics found him lying on his back in a hospital bed with no heartbeat, according to an El Paso Fire Department incident report.

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AP reporter Michael Biesecker contributed from Washington.