A second man has died within a fortnight at a controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention camp in Texas, raising serious questions about conditions amid a major deportation drive.
Details of the Latest Fatality
Victor Manuel Diaz, a 36-year-old man from Nicaragua, was found unconscious in his room at the Camp East Montana facility in El Paso on 14 January. According to an ICE press release, on-site medical staff performed emergency life-saving measures before paramedics arrived. Despite these efforts, Diaz could not be revived and was pronounced dead shortly after 4pm.
ICE stated that Diaz "died of a presumed suicide", though the official cause remains under investigation. Diaz was detained on 6 January in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as part of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations. He had initially entered the US in March 2024, was released on parole, and was later ordered for removal "in absentia" by an immigration judge in August.
A Pattern of Deaths in Custody
This incident marks the second death at the Camp East Montana tent facility, located on the Fort Bliss military base, in just two weeks. The first was Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, who died on 3 January. His death is potentially being investigated as a homicide after a medical examiner cited the preliminary cause as "asphyxia due to neck and chest compression".
Witness accounts contradict official narratives. Another detainee, Santos Jesus Flores, told the Washington Post he saw five guards choking Lunas Campos, who repeatedly said he could not breathe. The Department of Homeland Security later claimed Lunas Campos was attempting suicide and "violently resisted" officers, an allegation not in ICE's initial statement.
These deaths occur against a grim backdrop: 32 people died in ICE custody last year, the highest annual total in two decades. At least five fatalities have been reported in ICE custody since the start of this year. A third man, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, aged 48, died at a hospital near Camp East Montana on 3 December.
Protests and Political Context
The Camp East Montana facility, where these deaths occurred, has been a focal point for protest. Demonstrators gathered at Fort Bliss's Cassidy Gate in August 2025, opposing mass deportations as the camp was being constructed. The facility is central to the current administration's stringent immigration enforcement policies.
The consecutive fatalities at a single location have intensified scrutiny over the treatment of detainees, the transparency of investigations, and the overall management of immigration detention centres under the ongoing crackdown.
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