EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso City leaders are calling for an investigation into three deaths at Camp East Montana, including one that has been ruled a homicide.

During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, representatives agreed to ask the El Paso City Attorney to move forward with a request for the grand jury to conduct a full investigation into the deaths that occurred at Camp East Montana, the largest immigration detention facility in the country.

“The council had a unanimous vote on this, and this is really to ask our city attorney to move forward and reach out to a federal grand jury requesting a full investigation on the deaths, the three deaths that we had at Camp East Montana,” City Rep. Lily Limon said.

Since mid-December, three people have died at Camp East Montana, which was built last year to house thousands of immigrants.

According to ICE, 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar-Andres died from natural causes. An autopsy obtained by KFOX14/CBS4 states that Gaspar-Andres died from complications of liver disease. He was the first migrant who died at Camp East Montana.

Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, originally from Cuba, was the second migrant who died on Jan. 3. His death was later ruled a homicide by “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” according to an autopsy report obtained by KFOX14/CBS4.

The homicide ruling comes after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Campos, a convicted felon, died at the detention center after suffering an undisclosed medical emergency.

Eleven days after Lunas Campos’ death, Victor Manuel Diaz marked the third death at the detention facility. The 36-year-old Nicaraguan man was found unresponsive in his room. On-site medical staff and responding El Paso EMS performed life-saving measures but were unsuccessful.

ICE stated that death is a presumed suicide, though the official cause remains under investigation, as ICE sent Diaz’s body to a U.S. Army hospital rather than the local medical examiner.

The push for a grand jury investigation also comes as Amentum Services has been named as a new contractor for the detention center, promising that conditions in the facility would improve.

In a statement on Monday, an ICE spokesperson confirmed to KFOX14/CBS4 that Amentum Services Inc. will be taking over as the primary contractor for the detention facility, replacing the previous contractor, Acquisition Logistics LLC.

“Amentum has been a close partner with ICE in managing Camp East Montana and was best suited to take over as the prime government contractor for this facility. Amentum’s size, maturity, and pedigree make them the right partner at the right time, and we will work closely with them in their implementation of higher standards of medical care, more thorough case processing and intake procedures, and delivery of performance requirements according to well-defined accountability measures,” an ICE spokesperson said.

ICE added that it “will continue to ensure that all of the detainees in our custody receive the level of care, service, and medical support they need to match our high detention standards.”

Speaking to KFOX14/CBS4 on Tuesday after the vote, Limon said the investigation is needed despite the change in new contractors, citing concerns over conditions at the facility.

“I must be very, very leery because when you look at the conditions that the people are in, it was pointed out today, they don’t have running water. You know, what kind of conditions are those for people to live in? I’m hopeful, very, very hopeful that this is going to get to a grand jury and then we’ll have a full and complete investigation to bring clarity to this and to potentially put an end to the inhumane treatment of people that are in these camps,” Limon said.

According to federal spending records, Amentum Services has been awarded a contract worth $452.9 billion that has been in effect since March 13 and will run through Sept. 30 as the company is set to “provide detention, transportation, and medical services at the Camp East Montana temporary detention center.”

The new contractor comes after ICE said it had decided to end its contract with Richmond, Virginia-based company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, which was hired last July for $1.2 billion to build and operate the detention facility with a contract that was initially set to expire on Sept. 30, 2027.

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