Second man dies at Texas ICE detention facility in two weeks | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
A second man held at a US immigration detention facility in Texas has died in two weeks, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.
Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, originally from Nicaragua, was found “unconscious and unresponsive in his room” at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, ICE, on January 14 in question in a press release.
“They immediately notified the contracted medical personnel to take life-saving measures,” it said, adding that emergency medical technicians arrived at the facility but were unable to resuscitate Diaz, who was declared dead just after 16:00. ICE claimed that Diaz “died by presumed suicide” but that the “official cause of death is under investigation.”
Diaz was detained on January 6 during the Trump administration’s controversial deportation drive in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He first entered the U.S. at the Mexican border in March 2024, where border patrol agents picked him up and was given a court date with an immigration judge, then released on parole. On Aug. 26 of last year, an immigration judge ordered Diaz removed “in absentia.” ICE detained him on January 12 to deport him.
The extensive tent facility is located at Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.
Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year; this was the highest death toll in the last two decades. At least five people He reportedly died in ICE custody this year.
Another man, 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos, who immigrated to the United States from Cuba, died in the same detention camp on January 3. ICE in question Campos was “experiencing medical distress” and staff provided emergency treatment in hopes of saving him.
His death is being investigated as a potential homicide. The local medical examiner determined the initial cause of death was “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression,” according to reports. ICE said he had a medical emergency after experiencing a “disturbing situation in the medication line.”
Santos Jesus Flores, who was detained with him, said He told the Washington Post that he saw five guards choke him and heard Lunas Campos repeatedly say in Spanish that he couldn’t breathe.
“He said, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore, that’s all,” Flores was quoted as saying by the publication.
Following reports that Lunas Campos’ death could be investigated as a potential homicide, the Department of Homeland Security said in an email to the Guardian that Campos tried to kill himself and “violently resisted” officers who tried to help him.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin also told the Washington Post after publishing her article that Lunas Campos tried to take his own life. The claim was not part of ICE first statement.
Another Eastern Montana Camp inmate, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, dead on December 3 at a nearby hospital. He was 48 years old.
