Washington Post reports local medical examiner found ‘asphyxia’ to be cause of Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death

Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July last year, was pronounced dead on 3 January. He had been in ICE custody at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso.

In a press release about his death, the agency claimed he died after “experiencing medical distress” and said his cause of death was under investigation. The Department of Homeland Security had previously highlighted Lunas Campos’s arrest as one of the “worst of the worst” a category used by DHS to trumpet what they claim as victories of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. He has convictions of child sexual abuse, possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault.

But in a recording reviewed and first reported on by the Washington Post, the El Paso county’s office of the medical examiner reportedly told a member of Lunas Campos’s family that the office was preparing to classify the death as a homicide, subject to results of a toxicology report.