A mysterious death inside ICE's largest detention center

Summary

Post Reports: "A Mysterious Death Inside ICE's Largest Detention Center"

Date: January 21, 2026
Host/Reporter: Doug McMillan (with Martine Powers)
Podcast: The Washington Post’s "Post Reports"

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant who died in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, the largest migrant detention center in American history. Reporter Doug McMillan explores the opaque circumstances surrounding Lunas Campos’s death, the conflicting accounts offered by ICE and by witnesses, and what this case reveals about conditions and accountability in the rapidly expanding network of U.S. immigration detention facilities.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Black Box of U.S. Immigration Detention

• Opening Context (00:17):
  • President Trump’s expansion of immigration enforcement has led to more detentions, but the system is opaque even to detainees’ families.
  • "Family members of those arrested are sometimes left scrambling to find out where their loved ones have been taken and what will happen to them next." – Martine Powers

2. Who Was Geraldo Lunas Campos?

• Background (03:09–06:31):
  • Emigrated from Cuba in the 1990s, previously detained at Guantanamo Bay.
  • Lived in Rochester, NY; had three kids and a grandchild; struggled with employment due to immigration status and a criminal record.
  • ICE arrested him in July during a targeted operation, citing his criminal convictions—aggravated assault and child sexual abuse.

3. The Detention Facility: Camp East Montana

• Facility Description (06:31–08:42):
  • Makeshift tent city, built rapidly in the Chihuahuan Desert—crowded, noisy, lacking basic comforts and cleanliness.
  • Reports detailed violence from guards, poor medical care, and lack of recreation time.
  • Over 3,800 detainees, aiming to expand to 5,000.
  • "They said that they've been beaten by guards for complaining or for demanding medical treatment." – Doug McMillan (07:44)
  • ICE routinely asserts that its facilities "meet or exceed federal standards" despite repeated violations cited by inspectors.

4. A Family’s Search for the Truth

• Initial Aftermath (08:42–11:09):
  • ICE’s official notification to family: Lunas Campos died after "medical distress."
  • Family received little information and suspected a cover-up. The urgency to know what truly happened grows.
  • "[ICE] could be illegal, they could be whatever, but they still are human beings." – Jeanette Pagan Lopez (08:51)
  • Family discovered from the El Paso Medical Examiner that the preliminary cause of death was "asphyxia due to neck and chest compression," classified as a homicide—not explicitly a murder, but death caused by another person.

5. Eyewitness Account: Santos Flores’ Testimony

• Detainee Perspective (14:08–17:01):
  • Santos Flores, an inmate held in the same unit, witnessed the incident. He described seeing Lunas Campos, handcuffed and shackled, pleading for medication and refusing to enter his cell.
  • Flores said guards, at least five, forcefully restrained and choked Lunas Campos as he cried out he couldn’t breathe.
    • "We hear very clear. The guy said, I need my medication. And the guard was telling him, shut up." – Santos Flores (15:48)
    • "That was the last thing when he said, ‘I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore." – Santos Flores (16:19)
  • Flores claims guards tried using a defibrillator for about an hour but Lunas Campos could not be revived.

6. ICE's Contradictory Account and Official Response

• ICE Statement and Pushback (17:18–18:31):
  • ICE/DHS describes the incident as a suicide attempt, stating that "Campos violently resisted the security staff."
  • Family and Flores dispute this, noting Lunas Campos was shackled and making future plans.
    • "He was planning on what to do next… How he gonna take his own life? And he’s handcuffed his hands and feet. I know for a fact that he didn’t take his own life." – Jeanette Pagan Lopez (18:05)
• Retaliation Concerns:
  • Santos Flores and others who spoke to the press faced possible deportation soon after sharing their witness accounts.

7. Pattern of Deaths and Systemic Concerns

• Wider Crisis (18:31–20:54):
  • Over 280 people have died in ICE custody since 2004; at least 30 in the previous year—the highest in two decades.
  • ICE argues that, per capita, the death rate is at its lowest, but detainee advocates and families see a worsening crisis, largely unacknowledged by authorities.
  • Additional deaths, including a "presumed suicide" at the same El Paso camp, underscore the urgency and gravity of the situation.

8. The Family’s Ongoing Search for Justice

• Seeking Accountability (20:54):
  • Lopez hires a lawyer to pursue civil litigation.
    • "I can't bring him back. I need like justice of what happened to him and maybe, hopefully that it won't happen to nobody else." – Jeanette Pagan Lopez (20:54)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Human Dignity:

  • "The government needs to understand that these are human beings, regardless of what it is. They could be illegal, they could be whatever, but they still are human beings."
    — Jeanette Pagan Lopez (08:42)

• On ICE's Public Statements:

  • “I feel like it's unfair. It makes me feel like they're covering their. And I'm sorry for saying like that.”
    — Jeanette Pagan Lopez (09:31)

• On Official Cause of Death:

  • "[The doctor] is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression. Right now our doctor is believing that we're going to be listing the manner of death as homicide."
    — El Paso Medical Examiner (02:32)

• Witness Account of Death:

  • "That was the last thing when he said, ‘I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore."
    — Santos Flores (16:19)

• Disputing the Suicide Claim:

  • "He was planning on what to do next about how to stay in contact with his kids once he was deported. How he gonna take his own life? And he's handcuffed his hands and feet. I know for a fact that he didn't take his own life."
    — Jeanette Pagan Lopez (18:05)

• On Pursuing Justice:

  • "Like I can't bring him back. I need like justice of what happened to him and maybe, hopefully that it won't happen to nobody else."
    — Jeanette Pagan Lopez (20:54)

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Major Segments & Timestamps

• 00:17 – 03:09: Introduction, context on ICE detention, the “black box”
• 03:09 – 06:31: Lunas Campos’s background and journey
• 06:31 – 08:42: Description of Camp East Montana and its conditions
• 08:42 – 11:09: Family’s reaction to ICE’s notification and subsequent investigation
• 13:48 – 17:01: Eyewitness (Santos Flores) describes the fatal incident
• 17:01 – 18:31: ICE’s official narrative and the family’s rebuttal
• 18:31 – 20:54: Patterns of deaths in ICE custody, retaliation against witnesses, advocacy for accountability
• 20:54 – 21:18: Family’s pursuit of justice

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Tone and Language

• The reporting is urgent, methodical, and empathetic, giving voice to those directly affected while scrutinizing official narratives.
• The family’s voices are raw and determined, expressing grief and a demand for accountability, while detainee testimony is vivid and distressing.

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Conclusion

“A mysterious death inside ICE's largest detention center” shines a light on the human cost of expanded immigration enforcement and the secrecy inside U.S. detention centers. The episode details the struggle for truth faced by families and the press, the precarious position of detainees, and the resistance of authorities to accountability. Above all, it questions whether current systems can ensure basic dignity and justice for all people held within them.

Transcript

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

Plastic bags, plastic lids. What do we do with you? You can't go in the recycling bin, but you can be recycled if taken to a new recycle on center. Find one near [e-mail] OregonCenters.

[Martine Powers]

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump's fervor for immigration enforcement has been extremely visible. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have surged into cities across the country, Minneapolis and otherwise, seeking people to detain and deport. But what happens after people are detained? It can be hard to know. Family members of those arrested are sometimes left scrambling to find out where their loved ones have been taken and what will happen to them next. Investigative reporter Doug McMillan has been trying to look inside of that black box. And today he's going to tell a story of what happened to one man after he was scooped up by ICE and taken to the largest detention camp in the country. Just a note. Today's episode contains some discussion of violence, including suicide. All right, Doug will take it from here.

[Doug McMillan]

Reach the office of the medical examiner for the county of El Paso, Texas, para Espanol Oprimano Nueve.

[Medical Examiner Office Staff]

If you are calling to report a.

[Doug McMillan]

Death, please hang up and dial this. Earlier this month, a young woman in Rochester, New York made a phone call to the office of the medical examiner in El Paso, Texas. The information she hoped to get was important to her, so she recorded the call.

[Medical Examiner Office Staff]

For the chief investigator, please press 3.

[Doug McMillan]

She had recently received very upsetting news. Her father had died at a detention camp for immigrants. And she had a lot of questions. U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement didn't initially provide any details about how 55 year old Geraldo Lunas Campos had died. They said only that staff observed him in distress.

[Medical Examiner Office Staff]

Okay, let me see if I can connect you with an investigator. Give me one second.

[Doug McMillan]

That didn't sit right with his family. And now his daughter was sitting on hold, hoping that the person on the other end of the line could shed some light on her father's death.

[Medical Examiner Office Staff]

Okay, so what our doctors are advising of right now, and this is just preliminary information. Okay, so everything is still under investigation. We are still waiting for additional documentation as well. However, the doctor is listing the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression. Right now our doctor is believing that we're going to be listing the manner of death as homicide.

[Narrator/Host]

Right now.

[Doug McMillan]

That word, homicide jolted the members of Lunas Campos family into action, sending them on a search for answers about how he died and why. And it also sent me on a journey to find out what happened in those final moments of his life. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. I'm Doug McMillan, an investigative reporter here at the Post. It's Wednesday, January 21st. Today, what happened to Geraldo Lunas Campos? At first, ICE didn't say much about how he died in their custody. Then when they did say more, that story was very different from the version of events described by a man who says he witnessed the death. We're going to try to figure out the truth and examine what this story tells us about the conditions for ICE detainees all around the country. For the past year, I've been reporting on President Donald Trump's push to expand immigrant detention all over the country. He's been reopening private prisons as detention centers, creating these large scale camps to hold immigrants. And he's been partnering with red state governors and facilities all over the country to just expand the amount of bed space available to hold immigrants. I've been curious to know what's happening behind the scenes in these places because we are not allowed in. There's no cameras, there's no reporters. How are detainees being treated there and what's happening to them after they're being put in these facilities and held there, sometimes for days, weeks or months at a time. So when I heard about this death at a detention center in El Paso, I was really curious to figure out exactly what had happened. I spent some time talking to Lunas Campos friends, they call him Amici. They told me that he emigrated from Cuba in the mid-1990s. He had a son in Cuba, and he would send money back to him. One of the friends told me that Lunas Campos was detained for more than a year in Guantanamo Bay among the thousands of Cuban migrants who were held there in the mid-1990s. He was paroled into the US in 1996, but a few years later, an immigration judge ordered his removal. The government couldn't deport him, probably because Cuba accepts very few deportees from the United States. So Lunas campus made a life here. For years, Lunas Campos lived in Rochester, New York, where he had three kids and a grandchild. His family told me that he worked on and off as a roofer or delivering furniture. But it was hard for him to find work because of his immigration status and because he had a criminal record. Last July, ICE arrested Lunas Campos in an enforcement operation in Rochester. In a news release about that operation, they emphasized that he was a criminal. Court records we reviewed show that Lunas Campos was convicted of several crimes, including an aggravated assault with A weapon, and in 2003, first degree sexual abuse involving a child under 11 years old. In the release about his arrest, Ice said that his luck has finally run out. They plan to deport him in September. He was taken to this huge detention center on the Mexican border. It's in El Paso, Texas, but it's called Camp East Montana.

[Narrator/Host]

The largest federal migrant detention center in American history has opened its door in.

[Doug McMillan]

The summer heat of the Chihuahuan Desert. A city made of tents is springing up.

[Narrator/Host]

Today, dozens gathered outside Fort Bliss, urging.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

The Trump administration to close this facility.

[Doug McMillan]

Camp East Montana is a sprawling makeshift tent encampment that President Trump built over the past six months out of an empty patch of desert. Detainees and people who visited the site say it's like an active construction site with dust swirling and excavators humming. The tents are loud, a cacophony of hundreds of voices all day long, and they are not fully waterproof. So when it rains, water seeps in. The camp opened in August, and it's now the largest ICE detention center in the country, with more than 3800 detainees. And the goal is to hold up to 5000 people there. Migrants there have reported abysmal conditions. They said that they've been beaten by guards for complaining or for demanding medical treatment. They say that the place isn't cleaned on a regular basis. They say that the food is terrible, that they don't get to go outside to have recreation time, as ICE standards dictate that they should be allowed to. As I previously reported, ICE's own inspectors have cited dozens of violations of federal standards there, and we don't know if ICE has taken any action to address those violations. ICE has said that all of its detention centers meet or exceed federal standards and that all detainees are given access to high quality medical care. So this is where Lunas Campos found himself last fall. Over the next few months, his family would hear from him every now and then, but they never knew when they might get a call, so they really didn't know what was happening to him. Then, right after the New Year, his family got a call from ice. Lunas Campos was dead. Jeanette Pagan Lopez is the mother of two of Lunas Campos children. They separated when their kids were young, but they've stayed in close contact. I reached out to her after learning about this incident.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

The government needs to understand that these are human beings, regardless of what it is. They could be illegal, they could be whatever, but they still are human beings.

[Doug McMillan]

A few days after Lopez got that call, ICE released a statement about Lunas Campos. It said he had died, quote, after experiencing medical distress and that, quote, his cause of death was under investigation. Lopez said the statement felt like a cover up to her. How could ICE employees not know how someone died in one of their own facilities? She felt like it was important for her to find out what happened.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

I feel like the people that physically harm him should be held accountable.

[Doug McMillan]

Lopez also objected to the fact that ICE emphasized Lunas Campos criminal record in their statement about his death, calling him an aggravated felon.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

I feel like it's unfair. It makes me feel like they're covering their. And I'm sorry for saying like that.

[Doug McMillan]

Lunas Campos does have very serious criminal convictions, and we are still working on learning more about his background and more about the crimes that he committed by seeking court records and by talking to people that knew him. But whatever you think about his background, it is important to remember that ICE detention is not meant to be punitive. And it's supposed to be a place where the US Holds immigrants in a safe and humane way until they can be deported or have their immigration cases resolved. Lopez started making calls, trying to get as much information as she could about what really happened. She and Lunas Campos daughter who asked us not to share her name, both called the El Paso medical examiner to get an official cause of death. That was the call you heard at the top of this episode. The medical examiner's office said that the doctor there listed the preliminary cause of death as asphyxia due to neck and chest compression. I talked to a forensic pathologist who told me that that usually means someone died because they couldn't get enough oxygen because of pressure on their neck and chest. The El Paso medical examiner said they're likely to list the manner of death as a homicide. That means a death caused by another person, though not necessarily with the intent to kill. For Lopez, it was one of the first moments of real clarity since he died.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

I know for a fact that it was a. I know it's a homicide.

[Doug McMillan]

So now she knew more about how Lunas Campos had died. But she needed to know more what led up to that moment. And why wasn't ICE telling her anything? After the break, Jeanette Lopez goes searching for more answers. We'll be right back.

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[Doug McMillan]

After ICE told Jeanette Lopez that her former partner, Geraldo Lunas Campos, had died in their custody, she needed to know more. And she wasn't the only one. Lopez started getting calls from other men being held at Camp East Montana who said that they had seen everything. One of those people was a man named Santos Flores.

[Santos Flores]

S L O R E S okay.

[Doug McMillan]

Thank you for the call.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

How long have you been there?

[Santos Flores]

For, like, four months. I get here, like, September.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Okay.

[Doug McMillan]

He was being held in the part of the camp where Lunas Campos died. He's the only person I spoke to who says he saw the death, so we haven't been able to independently verify his account.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Tell me more in more detail about what happened. Yeah.

[Doug McMillan]

It was a Saturday afternoon. Lunas Campos was complaining to guards about needing to get his medication. ICE later said that he was being disruptive. Guards then brought him to the segregation unit. That's an area of the camp where people are held in isolated cells for hours or days at a time.

[Santos Flores]

They call it, like, the bus, you know, when the people do something, they take them there for, like, 15 days as, like, a disciplinary.

[Doug McMillan]

Flores was inside a cell in the segregation unit at the time. He says that he saw and heard what happened next. From a window in his cell, he saw Lunas Campos handcuffed and wearing shackles around his ankles, surrounded by guards.

[Santos Flores]

He was refusing to go inside the cell, and then he was asking for the medication.

[Doug McMillan]

The audio is a little bit hard to hear because the phone systems and ICE detention are not that great, but what he was telling me is that Lunas Campos refused to enter the segregation unit, and he just kept asking for his medication. We haven't been able to find exactly what medication he was trying to get a hold of. Another detainee told us that he thought that Lunas Campos had asthma, but we haven't been able to verify that.

[Santos Flores]

We hear very clear. The guy said, I need my medication. And the God was telling him, shut up.

[Martine Powers]

Up.

[Santos Flores]

You know, you gotta go inside the cell. Gotta go inside the cell and say, no, I need my medication.

[Doug McMillan]

Flores told me that he saw a group of at least five guards struggling with Lunas Campos.

[Santos Flores]

They grab him like that and shook him.

[Doug McMillan]

Just to repeat that, Flores says they grabbed him and started choking him. Then he says he and some other detainees heard Lunas Campos yelling in Spanish.

[Santos Flores]

No, that was the last thing when he said, I cannot breathe. He said, I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe. After that, we don't hear his voice anymore. And that's it. The security guards started running. They was afraid. They were scared. They were scared. They started running back and forth. They were trying to get him back with the. With the electric thing from the heart and everything.

[Doug McMillan]

Flores said they tried to revive him with a defibrillator for about an hour.

[Santos Flores]

Nah, nothing. Too late already. He was asking for his medication, that's all. Despite giving the medication they kill him.

[Doug McMillan]

Initially, when I asked ICE about Lunas Campos death and about Flores version of these events, they declined to comment. After I published my story, including his account, the Department of Homeland Security sent me a statement. I immediately called Lopez to read it to her.

[Interviewer/Reporter]

Like I said, this is going to be a little bit upsetting to hear, but I want to just read it to you. On January 3rd, Geraldo Lunas Campos, a criminal, illegal alien and convicted child sex predator, attempted to take his own life while he was detained at the Camp East Montana detention facility. The security staff immediately intervened to save his life. Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life. During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness. Medical staff was immediately called and responded. After repeated attempts to resuscitate him, EMTs declared him deceased on the scene.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

Well, first of all, I know that he will never take his own life because he was planning on what to do next about how to stay in contact with his kids once he was deported. How he gonna take his own life? And he's handcuffed his hands and feet. I know for a fact that he didn't take his own life.

[Doug McMillan]

The next day there was more news. The Trump administration was moving to deport two men who spoke to me for my story and including Santos Flores, the guy who had described to me in excruciating detail the last moments of Luna's Campos life. DHS has declined to comment on whether those moves had anything to do with the government's response to Luna's Campos death. And as of this week, the men are still in detention in El Paso. It's hard for me to check in with them because they have limited phone access. More than 280 people have died in ICE detention since 2004. In recent months, these deaths have become a lot more frequent. At least 30 people died in detention last year, the highest number in two decades. Shortly after we published my story, another ICE press release came out saying another person had died, this time at a detention center in Georgia. Two days later, they reported yet another death, a quote, presumed suicide, at Camp East Montana in El Paso, the same place where Lunas Campos had died. That means six people have already died in ICE custody since this year began. ICE has attributed the increase in deaths to the surging numbers of people that they're arresting. When you account for the higher number of people in detention, ICE says the rate at which people are dying in ICE detention is actually the lowest it's ever been. Even as they expand detention, ICE says it's maintained high quality care, which they say is the best health care many aliens have received in their entire lives. Lunas Campos family would disagree, and many of the people who have been held in ICE detention or visited these facilities over the past year say the growing number of detainees in is putting a strain on the resources like guard staff and medical personnel. Many see this as a crisis, one that government does not want to acknowledge or reckon with. Instead, they keep opening new facilities and adding more and more people to this system, testing it even more. Meanwhile, Lopez continues to search for justice. She hired a lawyer recently to explore potential civil litigation around Lunas Campos death.

[Jeanette Pagan Lopez]

Like I can't bring him back. I need like justice of what happened to him and maybe, hopefully that it won't happen to nobody else.

[Martine Powers]

Doug McMillan is an investigative reporter for the Post. That's it for Post Reports. Thanks for listening. Today's episode was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick, Dennis Funk and myself, and mixed by Shawn Carter. Thanks also to Juliet Alperin. For more on this investigation and and other stories about immigration enforcement around the country, head to washingtonpost.com Our reporters are closely watching how ICE operations continue to unfold and how they're changing life in U.S. cities again. Keep following washingtonpost.com I'm Martine Powers. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from the Washington Post. Foreign.

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