Cuban ICE detainee dies under restraint at Camp East Montana; death ruled a homicide

On January 3, 2026, Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban man and father of four, died at Camp East Montana, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's tent detention camp on the Army's Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas. He had been held there since September 6, 2025, after being arrested by immigration officers in Rochester, New York, where he had lived for nearly two decades; an immigration judge had ordered him removed in 2005, but the government was never able to obtain travel documents. ICE said he had been placed in segregation after becoming disruptive in a medication line, and his autopsy noted a history of bipolar disorder and anxiety.

The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. "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," the examiner concluded, noting that Lunas Campos "was witnessed to become unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement," with abrasions on his body and hemorrhaging in the muscles and tissues of his neck. The official account shifted over time: ICE's January 9 press release said he had "experienced medical distress," while the Department of Homeland Security later told reporters he had attempted to take his own life and died during the "ensuing struggle" as staff intervened. DHS said the matter remains an active investigation; no one has been charged.

The death was the third at Camp East Montana, which had opened only months earlier and grown into the nation's largest immigration detention facility. It was first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed through the final autopsy report obtained by NBC News under a public-records request. The Standing records this entry as a death in custody and a use of force by those who held him — the killing itself, distinct from the later class-action lawsuit over conditions at the same camp and from other deaths there — so that a homicide ruling against people the state detains out of public view is preserved as part of the record.