The death of an immigrant in US custody is poised to be officially classified as a homicide, a new report reveals, directly contradicting initial statements from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Contradictory Accounts of a Death in Custody
Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, died on 3 January 2026 at the makeshift Camp East Montana detention facility within the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initially stated that Campos experienced "medical distress" and that staff contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance. However, a starkly different narrative is emerging from the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner.
According to The Washington Post, which obtained a recording of a conversation, a staffer from the medical examiner's office informed Campos's daughter that a doctor "is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression." The staffer further stated, "Our doctor is believing that we're going to be listing the manner of death as homicide," pending toxicology results.
Witness and Official Statements Paint Conflicting Pictures
This potential homicide ruling stands in direct opposition to the account provided by DHS. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the department, told the newspaper that Lunas Campos died after he attempted to take his own life. "Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life," McLaughlin claimed. "During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness."
An inmate witness, however, describes a scene of excessive force. Fellow detainee Santos Jesus Flores told The Post he saw "at least five guards struggling with Lunas Campos after he refused to enter the segregation unit." Flores alleges he witnessed guards "choking Lunas Campos" and heard the man repeatedly cry out "I can't breathe" in Spanish.
Broader Context and Ongoing Investigation
Lunas Campos's death was one of four migrant fatalities in US immigration custody during the first ten days of 2026, a period that also saw public anger over an ICE agent's fatal shooting of a mother in Minnesota. ICE records show Campos was paroled into the US in 1996 and had a criminal record spanning nearly two decades, including serious charges. He was placed in segregated housing at the Texas facility after becoming "disruptive."
The mother of two of Campos's children, Jeanette Pagan Lopez, confirmed to the newspaper that the FBI has contacted her and is investigating the death. "I know it's a homicide," Lopez stated. "The people that physically harmed him should be held accountable." The case raises serious questions about the use of force in detention centres, which ICE regulations permit only after all reasonable alternatives fail and must be "necessary to gain control."
