Medical examiner believes death of ICE detainee arrested in Upstate NY was homicide (report)
The death of a 55-year-old man who died earlier this month at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention camp in Texas could be classified as a homicide, the Washington Post is reporting.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, according to a news release from ICE dated Jan. 9. The release said that Campos had been “experiencing medical distress” and his death was under investigation.
ICE said that Lunas Campos, from Cuba, had been living in Rochester for several years and was arrested on July 14 during a planned enforcement operation in the Western New York city. ICE stated that he had been convicted of multiple crimes between 1998 and 2009, listing 10 convictions, including sexual contact with a child under 11, unlawful possession of a weapon during a robbery, criminal possession of a weapon, and several others.
An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner said that the office is likely to classify Lunas Campos’ death as a homicide, the Post is reporting.
The employee made the comment to Lunas Campos’s daughter. The daughter made a recording of the conversation, which she shared with the Post.
In the recorded call, the employee said that a doctor is listing the cause of death as “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” and that pending a toxicology report, the doctor believes that “we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.”
According to the Post, a man who was also detained at the camp while Lunas Campos was there claimed that he saw several guards struggling with Lunas Campos, who was refusing to enter the segregation unit because he didn’t have his medications. The other detainee, Santos Jesus Flores, said he saw guards choking Lunas Campos and that Campos said “No puedo respirar” — Spanish for “I can’t breathe.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told People Magazine that “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.”
The spokesperson said that Lunas Campos “violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” and “stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
Four undocumented immigrants have died in ICE custody so far this year, according to The Hill.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments. … Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout the entirety of their stay,” department officials wrote in a statement to The Hill.
ICE has conducted several enforcement operations in Upstate New York. In March 2025, more than 100 people were arrested in a series of actions, and in September 2025, agents raided a nutrition-bar factory in Cato in which more than 100 workers were detained and 57 were taken into custody.
