ICE changes story and admits detainee died of 'spontaneous use of force'

Cuban man’s death at El Paso tent camp was result of “spontaneous use of force,” ICE says

by Lomi Kriel and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
February 20, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week reported that the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at a detention facility in El Paso was the result of the staff’s “spontaneous use of force” to “prevent him from harming himself.” Officials quietly updated the cause of death after previously declaring last month that the man died of “medical distress.”

The finding comes weeks after the local medical examiner ruled Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, the first such ruling for an ICE detainee’s death linked to staff in at least 15 years, according to experts. Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement,” his autopsy found, dying of asphyxia, meaning he couldn’t breathe because of pressure on his neck and chest.

In ICE’s report this week, investigators wrote that Lunas Campos, who was being detained at Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base, had a “complex medical and mental health history,” including prior treatment for tuberculosis, depression, anxiety and asthma, as well as a history of suicide attempts and “long-term psychotropic medication use.”

ICE officials wrote in that report that while detained at Camp East Montana, Lunas Campos received “regular” medical evaluations, with staff noting “episodes of significant psychological distress, including multiple incidents of self-harm and suicide watch placements.”

Six El Paso detainees described in federal court statements last month that Lunas Campos, a father of three who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years before being arrested last year, begged for days to receive his asthma medication. Detention staff refused and threatened him with solitary confinement, inmates said in the court filings.

On Jan. 3, ICE officials said Lunas Campos “attempted self-harm, prompting a rapid response from custody and medical staff.” The report noted “attempts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful.” He was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m.

The finding is a stark contrast to the initial ICE news release claiming Lunas Campos died from “medical distress.” Only after the medical examiner advised his family that it might be a homicide did ICE officials allege a suicide attempt.

In a statement to The Texas Tribune Friday afternoon, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not give their name defended the report, claiming that Lunas Campos “violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life.”

During the ensuing struggle, the spokesperson wrote, Campos “stopped breathing and lost consciousness.” Medical staff was immediately called, but after repeated attempts to resuscitate him, he was declared dead.

Lunas Campos’ death “is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming,” the spokesperson said.

"This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the spokesperson added. “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip."

Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday on whether ICE’s determination would prompt criminal charges.

Experts said that state prosecutors have precedent to pursue such charges despite the death occurring on military property, which is under federal jurisdiction.

“This is a moment where we need local law enforcement, local prosecutors to create accountability, because the federal government will not,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has visited the Fort Bliss camp more than half a dozen times.

She said that she believes local prosecutors have jurisdiction to prosecute the case although it happened on federal property because the staffers involved appear not to be ICE employees, but contractors.

“From what I understand, these are civilians. They're not law enforcement,” Escobar said in a recent interview. “They do not have the immunity the way that federal, state or local law enforcement officials have.”

Andra Litton, a special projects administrator for the El Paso District Attorney’s office, wrote in an email that the office continues to research whether it has jurisdiction to pursue charges, which she said is based on “the physical location of the facility, not the status or nature of employees involved.”

Camp East Montana was constructed in a record two months last summer after the government granted a $1.2 billion contract to Acquisition Logistics, a small Virginia corporation with no listed experience running detention facilities. The tent camp has been plagued with problems since it opened.

Since mid-December, three people have died there in a six-week span, beginning with a 48-year-old Guatemalan, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, who ICE said died on Dec. 3 of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention. Eleven days after Lunas Campos’ death, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz marked the facility’s third fatality. ICE sent Diaz to a U.S. Army hospital rather than the local medical examiner, where a military spokesperson said that the agency would not make his autopsy public.

The East Montana camp had no policy detailing when or how contractors can use force, two officials who viewed an investigative report conducted by ICE last fall or were briefed by the agency told The Texas Tribune. Contractors were also provided only 40 hours of training, a fraction of at least 42 days typically required of regular ICE agents, according to those officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Acquisition Logistics and two of its contractors in charge of detention and medical care either did not immediately respond to questions late Friday or could not be reached.

The federal government tried to deport the six detainees who witnessed the final moments of Lunas Campos, who had long–standing previous criminal convictions including child sex assault. A federal judge in Texas blocked their removal until after they testified to lawyers who have filed a civil suit against the government in his death.

The whereabouts of those witnesses are currently unclear, said Chris Benoit, an attorney representing Lunas Campos’ three children.

In their federal testimony, detainees told lawyers that after pleading for his asthma medication, guards dragged Lunas Campos in shackles to an isolation unit. They recalled “what sounded like the slamming of a person’s body against the floor or a wall.” They said they heard him gasp that he could no longer breathe. Then, “silence.”

Fatalities in ICE custody are typically the result of poor medical care or suicides, said Scott Shuchart, a former head of policy at ICE under Biden and senior adviser under Trump’s first term to DHS’ Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

“Deaths from staff violence are another level,” he said, calling them “preventable, and the result of training and supervision failures."

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.