The Medical Examiner Called His Death a Homicide. ICE’s Report Predictably Doesn’t Explain How He Died.

In the words of the El Paso, Texas, county medical examiner, on the Jan. 3, 2026 death of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos: “Based on the investigative and examination findings, it is my opinion that the cause of death is asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. The manner of death is homicide.”

There is no wiggle room for technicalities or interpretation of this language. This medical examiner told the public, unequivocally, that Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban native, died at ICE’s infamous Camp East Montana detention camp because someone killed him. Named witnesses are literally on the record saying that they saw Campos being choked by guards. “Asphyxia due to neck and torso compression” is not a thing that happens on its own. Nor did the medical examiner rule Campos’ death as a suicide, which is part of the story that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately pivoted to (but somehow never mentioned before) after word of the medical examiner’s findings became public. All of this left me extremely curious as to what ICE’s final detainee death report for Geraldo Lunas Campos would say, when they finally got around to publishing it, something that the agency has been very sporadic in doing despite being required by law.

Well, today ICE finally published the “full report” on Geraldo Lunas Campos, and suffice to say, it’s a complete joke. Not only is it completely free of any detail on what “self harm” Campos supposedly did to himself while in detention, it also doesn’t state what caused the detained prisoner to die, which is the entire reason why the report exists in the first place. This seems to be the new ICE and DHS playbook for suspicious deaths, by the way, having also been employed in the final detainee death report for 41-year-old detainee Jean Wilson Brutus in New Jersey. Brutus entered ICE detention in December, had just received his physical examination that noted no health issues, and according to ICE was dead from an unspecific “medical emergency” within four hours. In that case, ICE chose to simply publish a final report with no cause of death, and no explanation of what happened. With Geraldo Lunas Campos, it’s apparently going to be the same story, even though the case has already been ruled as a homicide.

We have received numerous credible reports of torture, killing, and inhumane treatment of detained individuals at the Camp East Montana migrant detention facility, located within Fort Bliss. #txlege

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— Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos (@anamariafortexas.com) Feb 10, 2026 at 1:47 PM

Not that I was expecting ICE’s report to acknowledge the homicide ruling, mind you, but I’m still apparently stupid and gullible enough to expect them to at least come up with a plausible sounding story that contains a few details. Instead, the report merely tells us that Geraldo Lunas Campos “attempted self-harm, prompting a rapid response from custody and medical staff. Immediate attempts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful, resulting in spontaneous use of force to prevent Mr. Lunas Campos from harming himself. Mr. Lunas Campos became unresponsive and medical staff initiated resuscitative efforts. Attempts were unsuccessful and Mr. Lunas Campos was pronounced deceased at 10:16 p.m.”

What the fuck are we supposed to actually make of any of that? What is the government claiming actually happened here? Are they claiming that Geraldo Lunas Campos was choking himself, and that’s how he received the injuries that would lead the medical examiner to label the case as a homicide? How is he meant to have completed suicide with multiple people attempting to stop him? Or is the government claiming that he was trying to hurt himself in some other way, so staff had no choice but to choke him to death, for his own protection? If there’s a detailed story that would show the guards in a better light, why is that story not present in the final death report? The government seems to be hoping that by simply being vague enough, they won’t have to be on the record giving any kind of concrete statement on what actually happened to this man. Contrast this, by the way, with ICE detainee death reports for other migrants who suffered from more obvious medical health emergencies, and note the difference in detail. The other reports are timestamped, with numerous pages detailing the exact medical processes involved, and end with medical summaries of what happened to the patient. Campos and Brutus? Their reports end with “and then they were pronounced dead,” as if that is a sufficient amount of information. It’s certainly not enough for the family, which has retained legal counsel for a potential wrongful death lawsuit.

I can’t really conceive of how the government’s evolving language about Geraldo Lunas Campos could be any more suspicious, even if they were trying. If “self-harm” was an important factor in the man’s death, then why wasn’t any suicide attempt or suicidal ideation mentioned, whatsoever, in the initial press release that ICE put out on Jan. 9, 2026? Why did they suddenly start talking about suicide only after they learned that the death would be classified as a homicide? Why does the initial press release also not have any mention of the “spontaneous use of force” that was necessary? It’s as if the government wants to look like it’s covering up a suspicious death here.

The message could scarcely be more clear: Those in charge of ICE believe that they can simply offer up as little information as technically, legally required about these incidents of detainee deaths, because no one will stop them. They are relying entirely on the public’s apathy toward the victims of Donald Trump’s deportation campaign to keep the public from caring when these people die, even when medical professionals tell the public that PEOPLE ARE BEING KILLED IN ICE DETENTION. Will you prove them right by simply accepting this state of affairs? Or will you join our protest and demand for the truth?

As if you should need any more shady behavior in this particular case, here’s one more tidbit. Geraldo Lunas Campos was one of three migrants who died at Camp East Montana within a six-week period this winter. The last of those, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz of Nicaragua, died 11 days after Campos, of what ICE’s initial press release labeled as a “presumed suicide.” However, the body of Diaz was not sent to the same county medical examiner who had handled the previous two deaths at Camp East Montana, the person who had ruled Campos’ death a homicide only a few days earlier. Instead, ICE sent the body to an Army medical examiner at Fort Bliss. What can you make of that, other than ICE not wanting to leave any chance of a similar finding?

We leave you with the words of Jeanette Pagan Lopez, the mother of two of Geraldo Lunas Campos’ children. To The Washington Post, which initially broke the story of the medical examiner’s findings, she said the following: “I know it’s a homicide. The people that physically harmed him should be held accountable.”