Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that a Cuban immigrant died at a Texas detention camp after experiencing “medical hardship,” but did not elaborate on the cause of his final moments.
Now, a medical examiner has ruled the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos a homicide, the Associated Press reported Wednesday — news that could intensify scrutiny of the facility, where three detainees have died in recent weeks.
The 55-year-old man’s body showed signs of a struggle, and an autopsy report showed abrasions on his chest and knees and bleeding in his neck, the Associated Press reported. Reports said he died of suffocation due to compression of his neck and torso.
According to a news release from ICE, Lunas Campos died on the evening of January 3 at the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN in a statement that Lunas Campos “violently resisted staff members who attempted to intervene” when he attempted suicide.
But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed during the incident and at least five guards were holding him down. Witnesses said a guard put an arm around his neck and squeezed him until he lost consciousness.
The autopsy report noted that witnesses saw Lunas Campos “become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement officers,” but provided no further details, the Associated Press reported. However, it did point to evidence of injuries to his neck, head and torso resulting from physical restraint.
Lee Ann Grossberg, an independent forensic pathologist who reviewed the autopsy, told The Washington Post that the homicide findings did not mean there was intent to kill, but rather that the victim’s death was caused by another person.
CNN has contacted the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office for information about the autopsy.
ICE initially provided a less detailed description of what happened before the man’s death.
That day, Lunas Campos was placed in a segregation unit after “disturbing behavior while in line to receive his medication and refusing to return to his assigned dormitory,” ICE said in a Jan. 9 news release. Staff later “found him in distress,” the agency said. Paramedics and emergency services were called but he was pronounced dead shortly after 10pm
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that the man attempted suicide and “security personnel immediately intervened to save his life.”
“Campos violently resisted the security officer and continued to attempt suicide. During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness,” the spokesperson said.
ICE said Lunas Campos has been in federal custody since his arrest in July during an immigration operation in Rochester, New York. In September, he was transferred to the El Paso facility.
After arriving in the United States in 1996, Lunas Campos was subject to criminal charges and convictions over the years, some of them felonies, according to ICE. The agency cited 10 convictions between 1998 and 2009, including sale of controlled substances, armed robbery and sexual contact with a child under 11 years old. ICE said that despite a judge ordering Lunas Campos to be deported from the United States in 2005, Lunas Campos was not deported because the government was unable to obtain travel documents.
In announcing the death, ICE said it was “committed to ensuring that all detainees are housed in safe, secure and humane environments.” It added that “comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment an individual arrives and throughout their stay.”
Three detainees die in camp
Lunas Campos is one of at least three Camp Eastern Montana detainees who have died in ICE custody in recent weeks, one of whom died while being treated at a nearby hospital.
Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a Guatemalan national whom ICE said was in the U.S. illegally, had received medical care multiple times since being detained on Sept. 1 for issues including alcohol withdrawal, acid reflux, flu-like symptoms and high blood pressure, according to an ICE statement last month.
Gaspar-Andres, 48, was admitted to an El Paso hospital in November with low sodium levels and his health continued to deteriorate before his death on Dec. 3, the statement said. The cause of his death has not yet been determined, but “medical personnel attributed it to natural liver and kidney failure,” ICE said.
According to ICE, on January 14, contract security guards found another detainee, Victor Manuel Diaz, unconscious and unresponsive in his room at the camp in eastern Montana and began life-saving measures. Shortly after emergency services took over, they determined Diaz was dead.
ICE said on January 18: “(Diaz) died as a suspected suicide; however, his official cause of death remains under investigation.”
Diaz, a 36-year-old man from Nicaragua, was detained in Minneapolis earlier this month on immigration violations, according to ICE. It’s unclear when he was transferred to Camp East, Montana.
The eastern Montana camp has drawn criticism from Texas Democratic lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union, who have expressed concerns about detainee deaths, treatment of immigrants and living conditions.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said Gaspar-Andres’ death was one of several concerns she had about the health and safety of the facility. Last month, she called conditions at the camps “dangerous and inhumane” in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons.
The ACLU of Texas called for the camp to be closed, saying it believed Lunas Campos’ death was “part of a broader pattern of unchecked violence and abuse perpetrated against members of our community by ICE using taxpayer dollars.”
“Any suggestion that there are ‘inhumane’ conditions at ICE detention centers is absolutely false,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in September.
“All detainees receive appropriate meals, medical care, and the opportunity to communicate with attorneys and their families. It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” McLaughlin said. She added that she believed the facility provides “the best medical care many aliens have ever received in their lives.”
The Camp Eastern Montana tent facility at Fort Bliss is expected to be the largest internment facility in the United States, according to the Associated Press. The outlet reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility would be operated by a private contractor.
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