Witness Claims ICE Detainee Died After Texas Detention Center Guards Suffocated Him

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cuban immigrant dies in Texas immigration detention center earlier this month during an altercation with guards, and the local medical examiner indicated his death would likely be ruled a homicide.

The federal government provided a different account of the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, saying the inmate was attempting suicide and 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 informed Wednesday by the El Paso County medical examiner’s office that a preliminary autopsy report indicated the death was a homicide resulting from asphyxia due to compression of the chest and neck, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the AP.

The deaths and conflicting accounts have intensified scrutiny of conditions in immigrant prisons at a time when the government has rounded up large numbers of immigrants across the country and detained 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 notification of detainee deaths. Last week, Lunas Campos, 55, a father of four and registered sex offender, died at Camp East Montana, although there was no mention of his involvement in an altercation with staff just before his death.

In response to questions from the AP, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, on Thursday changed its account of Lunas Campos’ death, saying he had attempted suicide.

“Campos violently resisted security personnel and continued to attempt suicide,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”

In an interview before DHS updated its story, detainee Santos Jesús Flores, 47, originally from El Salvador, said he witnessed the incident through his cell window in the special housing unit, where detainees are placed in solitary confinement for disciplinary infractions.

“He didn’t want to go into the cell where they were going to put him,” Flores told the AP on Thursday, speaking in Spanish from a phone in the facility. “The last thing he said was that he couldn’t breathe.”

Among the first sent to Camp Montana East

Camp Montana East is a large tent complex hastily constructed in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, a military base. The AP reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility, expected to become the largest detention center in the United States, was 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 operating a correctional facility.

It was not immediately clear whether the guards present at the time of Lunas Campos’ death were government employees or those of the private contractor. Emails seeking comment from Acquisition Logistics executives on Thursday received no 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 lived for more than two decades. He was legally admitted to the United States in 1996, part of a wave of Cuban immigrants seeking to reach Florida by boat.

ICE said he was arrested in July as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation because of criminal convictions that made him eligible for deportation.

New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact 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 to five years in prison and three years of supervision in 2009 after being convicted of attempted sale of a controlled substance, according to New York corrections records. He completed his sentence in January 2017.

Lunas Campos’ adult daughter says the child sexual abuse accusation is false, made amid a contentious custody battle.

“My father was not a child molester,” Kary Lunas, 25, said. “He was a good father. He was a human being.”

Conflicting accounts

On the day of his death, according to ICE, Lunas Campos became disruptive while waiting in line for medication and refused to return to his dorm room. He was then taken to the isolation unit.

“While in isolation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance,” the agency said in its Jan. 9 statement. “Medical personnel responded, took life-saving measures and requested emergency medical services.”

Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.

Flores said that account omitted key details: Lunas Campos was already handcuffed when at least five guards tackled him to the ground, and at least one of them tightened his arm around his neck.

After about five minutes, Flores said, Lunas Campos was no longer moving.

“After he stopped breathing, they took the handcuffs off,” Flores said.

Flores is not represented by an attorney and said he had already consented to deportation to his home country. Although he acknowledged he was taking a risk in speaking to the AP, Flores said he wanted to emphasize that “in this place, the guards mistreat people a lot.”

He said several inmates in the unit witnessed the altercation and security cameras should have captured the events. Flores also said investigators did not question him.

DHS did not respond to questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed when he claimed he attempted suicide, or exactly how he attempted suicide.

“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of everyone detained in our custody,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation and more details will be available soon.”

DHS would not say whether other agencies were investigating. The El Paso medical examiner’s office confirmed Thursday that it had conducted an autopsy, but declined further comment.

A final determination of homicide by the medical examiner would generally be key in determining whether guards are held criminally or civilly liable. When such deaths are ruled accidental or other than homicide, they are less likely to trigger criminal investigations, while civil wrongful death suits become more difficult to prove.

The fact that Lunas Campos died on a military base could also limit the legal jurisdiction of state and local authorities to investigate. A spokesperson for the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office declined to say Thursday whether it was involved in an investigation.

The deaths of inmates and other detainees after officers held them face down and put pressure on their backs and necks to restrain them has been a problem for law enforcement for decades. An AP 2024 survey documented hundreds of deaths during clashes with police during which people were held in a prone position. Many uttered “I can’t breathe” before choking, according to numerous body camera and bystander videos. Authorities often try to blame these deaths on pre-existing health conditions or drug use.

Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist who has studied deaths related to prone restraint, said the preliminary autopsy ruling of homicide indicates the guards’ actions caused Lunas Campos’ death, but does not mean they intended to kill. He added that the medical examiner’s office might be pressured not to call it a homicide, but would “probably stick to their guns.”

“It probably meets the ‘but for’ test. Without the actions of the officers, he wouldn’t have died. To us, it’s generally a homicide,” he said.

“I just want justice and his body here”

Jeanette Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos’ two youngest children, said that the day after he died, the medical examiner’s office called her to inform her that his body was at the county morgue. She immediately called ICE to find out what happened.

Pagan-Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said the deputy director of the El Paso ICE field office eventually called her back. She said the manager told her the cause of death was still pending and they were awaiting the results of the toxicology report. He also told her that the only way Lunas Campos’ body could be flown back to Rochester for free was if she consented to him being cremated, she said.

Pagan-Lopez refused and is now seeking help from family and friends to raise the money to transport his body home and pay for the funeral.

After failing to obtain details about the circumstances of her death from ICE, Pagan-Lopez said she received a call from an inmate at Camp Montana East who then put her in contact with Flores, who first told her about the altercation with guards.

Since then, she said she has called ICE several times, but hasn’t gotten 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 splitting eight years ago. She described him as a caring father who, until his arrest, had worked minimum wage at a furniture store, the only job she could find because of his criminal record.

She said that during the family’s last phone call, the week after Christmas, Lunas Campos told his children about his planned deportation to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island, so he could stay in their lives.

“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Pagan-Lopez said. “I just want justice and his body here. That’s all I want.”

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Attanasio reported from Seattle and Foley from Iowa City.

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Contact the AP Global Investigative Team at (email protected) or https://www.ap.org/tips/.