As federal authorities face questions over a recent death inside an ICE detention facility in El Paso, community and religious leaders joined human rights groups Friday in Downtown to condemn what they described as an “alarming escalation” of immigration enforcement in the region they say is endangering families and violating basic human rights.
The Washington Post in a story published this week raised questions about the circumstances of the detainee’s death under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reporting that a county examiner’s employee was recorded saying asphyxia will likely be listed as the cause of death – and that the manner of death may be ruled homicide.
“There are moments when lines are crossed and it is difficult to know how we can ever come back,” Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso said at the gathering outside the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse. “The violence that we’re witnessing both in the private spaces in immigrant detention centers and now openly on the streets seems to be one of those moments. A line has been crossed in our hearts and in our society.”
While targeted ICE arrests aren’t uncommon in the El Paso region, immigration officials have conducted untargeted raids in recent weeks that led to the detention of workers at several construction sites, including on the Far Eastside, Horizon City and in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Seitz was joined by a handful of elected officials and representatives from the Border Network for Human Rights, Annunciation House, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Estrella del Paso, among others.
The speakers condemned current immigration policies and asked legislators for humane comprehensive immigration reform, encouraged the community to continue speaking out and protesting, and pleaded with immigration enforcement agents to work in good conscience.
“The cruelty is an option. We can enforce matters, we can follow orders. The cruelty should not be a requirement,” said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of Las Americas.
She pointed to the large number of law enforcement officers who live and work in the community, including those who are now working as contractors at the ICE detention centers in El Paso.
Death at Camp East Montana
The death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, at the East Montana Detention Facility at Fort Bliss earlier this month was put in the national spotlight after the Washington Post on Thursday reported it obtained a recording of a conversation between an El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office employee and Campos’ daughter.
The employee stated that asphyxia will likely be listed as the cause of death, the newspaper reported, and that the manner of death will likely be ruled homicide, pending toxicology reports.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday that the autopsy report is pending and that the office doesn’t grant interviews or release preliminary information. Reports vary on completion from four to eight weeks, “sometimes longer,” the office said in an emailed response to El Paso Matters.
In a Jan. 9 news release, ICE said Campos died after “experiencing medical distress.”
Campos allegedly became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was placed in segregation, where staff observed him in distress. On-site medical personnel responded, initiated life-saving measures and requested emergency medical services, which pronounced him dead, the news release states.
The Department of Homeland Security responded to El Paso Matters with the same comments it provided the Washington Post, stating that attempted to take his own life and “violently resisted” security staff as he did so. The emailed statement goes on to say security staff “intervened to save his life,” but that Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness during the struggle.
DHS said the investigation into the death is still active and that more details would be forthcoming.
According to ICE, Campos was arrested July 14 in Rochester, New York, during a planned immigration enforcement operation. He entered the United States in 1996 and had a criminal record, including charges of possession of a weapon, petty larceny, sexual contact with a minor and driving while intoxicated, the release states.
Campos was ordered removed from the United States in March 2025. However, the government had been unable to deport him to Cuba, which has historically lacked a repatriation agreement with the United States over severed relationships between the two countries. He was transferred to Camp East Montana in September.
Record deaths in ICE custody
Campos is the second person detained at the East Montana facility to die.
Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, of Guatemala, died Dec. 3 in an El Paso hospital after months of medical complications while in ICE custody. His cause of death is pending, ICE said in a news release two days after his death, adding that medical staff attributed it to natural liver and kidney failure.
The agency is required to make public all reports on deaths in custody within 90 days.
ICE has reported four in-custody deaths so far this year. Last year, 32 people died while in ICE custody, marking the agency’s second deadliest year in more than two decades, The Guardian recently reported.
The ACLU and other human rights organizations in early December released a letter sent to ICE officials calling for the camp to be shut down, alleging detained immigrants are subject to beatings and sexual abuse by officers, as well as medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of access to attorneys.
Ramping up immigration enforcement
President Donald Trump and his administration the past few months have dramatically ramped up immigration enforcement and deportations, spending billions of dollars to expand enforcement capacity, detention centers and personnel nationwide. ICE has increased arrests in courthouses, workplaces and at-large street operations, moving beyond just criminal records to detain migrants and even U.S. citizens.
Eight people, including five U.S. citizens, have been shot by DHS officers since September. Two of them died.
In Minneapolis, a federal ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three, during a large immigration enforcement operation that deployed thousands of agents to the Twin Cities. Federal officials have defended the Jan. 7 shooting as self-defense, claiming she “weaponized her vehicle,” while local leaders and bystander video dispute that account and characterize the incident as an unjustified use of force.
The shooting sparked widespread protests marked by anger and grief across Minnesota and in cities nationwide, including in El Paso, condemning federal immigration enforcement and demanding accountability and changes to ICE’s operations.
Outside the El Paso courthouse Friday, Annunciation House Executive Director Ruben Garcia pleaded with the community to continue being involved to protect not just the people, but the constitution and the integrity of the upcoming midterm elections.
“What we have been experiencing is an incredible amount of actions that have been based upon lies, based on things that are simply not true,” Garcia said. “We remain rooted in the belief that the Constitution is ultimately what is going to govern us.”
The post ICE custody death, immigration raids in El Paso spark calls to action, pleas for enforcement without cruelty appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Read: Read More