ICE first claimed that Cuban Geraldo Lunas Campos died on January 3 after “experiencing medical distress,” The Texas Tribune reported. But later, after The Washington Post reported that the El Paso medical examiner was likely to determine Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, ICE came up with a new story: that their prisoner had “died after attempting suicide and ICE staff attempted to save him.”
Now the El Paso medical examiner has indeed ruled that Lunas Campos’ death was a homicide. He died of “‘asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,’ according to the autopsy report, meaning that he couldn’t breathe because of pressure on his neck and chest,” The Tribune said. The autopsy also reportedly found that Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement.”
Those “pro life” Texans sure have a lot of deaths on their hands of late. According to The Tribune, Lunas Campos is one of three detainees to die in the last two months at Camp East Montana, in El Paso. The Post described that facility as “a colossal makeshift tent encampment on the Mexican border where migrants have reported substandard conditions and physical abuse, and ICE’s own inspectors have cited dozens of violations of federal detention standards.”
A fourth detainee died on January 5 at an ICE processing center near Houston, The Tribune also noted. ICE claimed that man, Luis Gustavo Núñez, died because of “chronic heart-related health issues.”
I hope Kristi Noem and every single person enabling her department’s lethal cruelty end up in jail.
