Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

WP Exclusive
Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says

A fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at an ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3.

January 15, 2026 at 5:34 p.m. EST 57 minutes ago


Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in El Paso in August. (Paul Ratje/Reuters)

By Douglas MacMillan

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the Jan. 3 death of detainee Geraldo Lunas Campos at a Texas detention camp, the agency said "staff observed him in distress," and it gave no cause of death.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2026/01/15/ice-detention-death-homicide/

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/douglas-macmillan/

https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/douglasmac.bsky.social

I don't have a subscription to the WaPo, so I can't say any more than what I have here.

For additional material, go here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143599431#post2

[marble falls]

1. Only because it was.

[highplainsdem]

2. I was about to post this story when I got a phone call.

You've posted only the first paragraph of the story. Here are the next three:

An employee of El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner told Lunas Campos’s daughter this week that, subject to results of a toxicology report, the office is likely to classify the death as a homicide, according to a recording of the conversation.

In the recording, which the daughter shared with The Washington Post, the employee said a doctor there “is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” which means Lunas Campos did not get enough oxygen because of pressure on his neck and chest. Pending the results of a toxicology report, the staffer said on the recording, “our doctor is believing that we’re going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.”

A 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, Lunas Campos died following a struggle with detention staff, according to an eyewitness account and an internal ICE document reviewed by The Post.

The comment I was adding in the OP I'd written:

Campos did have a criminal record, but the does not excuse ICE killing him. According to the article, a witness told the Post that Campos was waiting in line for needed medications when guards tried to move him to a different housing unit. He resisted because he didn't have his medications yet, and "at least five" guards struggled with him and choked him, even though he told them again and again that he couldn't breathe.

[Solly Mack]

3. ...

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Why don't you use the archive?

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Your last posted link is a link back to this post by the way.

https://archive.ph/1GLNr

The full article is available at the archive here and requires no subscription to read it in its entirety.

I found it by searching here:
https://archive.ph/
It's free and available to most everyone. No need to make apologies for not being able to share.

Thanks for the heads up with the post. I hope you find this helpful for your future posts. ❤️