EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — The death of a migrant man who died inside the detention center Camp East Montana in Fort Bliss earlier this month will likely be ruled a homicide, according to The Washington Post.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a 55-year-old Cuban migrant and convicted felon, Geraldo Lunas Campos, died Jan. 3 at around 10:16 p.m., at the detention center after suffering an undisclosed medical emergency.
On Thursday, the Post cited a recording shared by Campos’ daughter, in which an employee from the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner’s Office reportedly told her that the preliminary cause of death was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression.”
However, this determination is pending the results of a toxicology report.
KFOX14/CBS4 has filed an open records request for the autopsy report of Campos, as the investigation continues.
Site of new immigration detention facility on Fort Bliss. (Credit: KFOX14/CBS4)
In an emailed statement to KFOX14/CBS4, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said: “On January 3rd, Geraldo Lunas Campos, a criminal illegal alien and convicted child sex predator, attempted to take his own life while he was detained at the Camp East Montana detention facility. The security staff immediately intervened to save his life. Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life. During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness. Medical staff was immediately called and responded. After repeated attempts to resuscitate him, EMTs declared him deceased on the scene.”
“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody,” a DHS spokesperson continued. “This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming. ICE investigates the circumstances of all deaths in custody.”
Immigration advocates have been vocal about what they say is a lack of accountability when it comes to in-custody deaths.
Following the Post’s report, Marisa Limon Garza, the Executive Director at Las Americas, a local advocacy center, said in a statement to KFOX14/CBS4 via email, “The fact that a medical examiner believes a man died by homicide while in ICE custody is not shocking. It is horrifying, and it is exactly what happens when the government locks people away in secretive facilities with no real oversight or accountability. Geraldo Lunas Campos had lived in the U.S. since 1996. He deserved to be home with his family.”
“What is happening at Camp East Montana should enrage every single one of us,” she added. “This facility is operating like a black site. People are disappearing into a system where they are denied medical care, cut off from their lawyers and families, and treated as if their lives do not matter. We are here to say that their lives matter.”
As KFOX14/CBS4 previously reported, Campos was the second death reported at the detention center.
At the time the death was reported, ICE said Campos had been disruptive earlier that day while waiting in line for medication and had reportedly refused to return to his room. As a result, ICE said they put Campos in “segregation,” where later staff from the detention center saw him in “distress” and called for on-site medical staff.
ICE stated that medical personnel from Camp East Montana tried lifesaving measures but eventually had to call emergency services.
Campos had been arrested by immigration officers on July 14, 2025, in Rochester, New York, and held at Camp East Montana since Sept. 6, officials reported. He had been in the country for 30 years, having reportedly entered the U.S. in 1996.
ICE stated that in March 2005, an immigration judge ordered his deportation; however, Campos was not removed because “the government could not obtain travel documents.”
ICE listed Campos’ convictions:
Criminal possession of a weapon on June 8, 1998Petit larceny on May 5, 1999Unlawful possession of a weapon during a robbery on March 22, 2002Sexual contact with a child under 11 on Jan. 17, 2003Petit larceny on Oct. 14, 2005Petit larceny on May 25, 2006Reckless driving on June 8, 2006Possession of a controlled substance on Feb. 26, 2007Driving while intoxicated on Oct. 26, 2007Sale of a controlled substance on Feb. 17, 2009
Campos’ death comes after the first migrant death in Camp East Montana was reported on Dec. 3.
According to ICE, 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar-Andres died from natural causes, adding that medical professionals said he suffered liver and kidney failure; however, federal officials said his cause of death is pending.
Camp East Montana has been under fire by some leaders, such as El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who has continually accused the detention center of abuse and fraud.
Escobar provided the following statement:
I have been sounding the alarm about Camp East Montana, a $1.24 billion privately operated immigration detention facility funded by American taxpayers since it opened. Among the consistent concerns from detainees has been the lack of access to necessary medication, retaliation, and a number of other issues. And we have now learned that another detainee has died, and the El Paso County Medical Examiner is likely to rule it a homicide.I reiterate what I’ve said before: this facility should be shut down and the contract terminated. It has never adhered to basic or appropriate standards to ensure the safety and dignity of the human beings in custody and it is clearly a profit-making enterprise for the corporation.
She added, “For months, I have asked Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Director Todd Lyons to provide me with information about the contract and the facility and to address the concerns I raised with them. As a member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee for the House Appropriations Committee, I can unequivocally say that DHS is operating with absolutely no regard for transparency, truthfulness or regard for human life. There must be accountability for this and other egregious violations of our values as a nation and the laws DHS is required to follow.”
DHS has repeatedly denied all claims of inhumane conditions, calling them “fearmongering clickbait.”
“No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip,” DHS wrote in an official statement addressing these claims.
This story has been updated to include the statements from DHS and Escobar.
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