The death of a Cuban migrant inside a Texas immigration detention facility has been officially classified as a homicide, according to an El Paso county autopsy report.
Wednesday’s autopsy report from the El Paso county medical examiner’s office concluded that Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression”, according to Adam Gonzalez, a deputy medical examiner.
The report, which the Associated Press reviewed, also cited witnesses saying Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement”. The document added that Lunas Campos had injuries on his chest and knees – as well as petechial hemorrhages in the eyelids and neck.
Lunas Campos died on 3 January while being held by federal immigration officials at Camp East Montana, a detention facility near El Paso. Confirming Lunas Campos’s death earlier in January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that Lunas Campos died after “experiencing medical distress” – adding that his death was under investigation.
However, according to a witness who had previously spoken to the Associated Press, Lunas Campos was handcuffed while at least five guards pinned him down, with one squeezing his neck until he became unconscious.
According to the DHS, Lunas Campos was arrested in July during an immigration sweep in Rochester, New York. Lunas Campos, who entered the US in 1996, had been charged with child sexual abuse, possession of a firearm and aggravated assault.
Attorneys representing Lunas Campos’s family have moved to block the deportation of two people they say witnessed the events leading to his death, ABC reported. In an emergency petition filed on Tuesday and granted by a federal judge, the lawyers argued that the witnesses’ accounts were essential to establishing what occurred.
“The two witnesses appear to have unique knowledge and independent eyewitness testimony of the events at issue,” the petition stated, according to ABC, which added that Lunas Campos’s family planned to seek formal testimony from the witnesses.
In the DHS’s initial statement following Lunas Campos’s death, officials said “Lunas became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm”.
“He was subsequently placed in segregation,” that statement continued. “While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance.”
However, the DHS changed its account after reports emerged in recent weeks that Lunas Campos’s death might be classified as a homicide.
The DHS claimed in a statement to the Guardian on 15 January that Lunas Campos had attempted suicide and that he “violently resisted” guards who tried to help him. Similarly, the Associated Press reported the DHS claiming that “during the ensuing struggle, Lunas Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness”.
The Guardian has reached out to DHS for comment on the published autopsy report.
According to ICE, the agency’s detention standards “ensure that detainees are treated humanely; protected from harm; provided appropriate medical and mental health care; and receive the rights and protections to which they are entitled”.
At least four migrants – including Lunas Campos – have died in US immigration custody since the beginning of year. The deaths of 32 people in custody in 2025 made it ICE’s deadliest year in two decades.
