Migrant Death in ICE Custody Sparks Scrutiny as Autopsy Moved to Military Hospital
ICE’s handling of migrant deaths in custody has sparked criticism and fresh questions about transparency after the agency bypassed the local medical examiner for a controversial autopsy. On Jan. 14, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz, a Nicaraguan detained at Camp East Montana near Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, was found unconscious and later declared dead by authorities. According to The Texas Tribune, ICE labeled his death a “presumed suicide.”
The choice of where Diaz’s body was sent has raised alarms. Instead of using the El Paso County Medical Examiner, which has conducted autopsies for previous deaths at the facility, ICE transferred Diaz to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center for examination, where autopsy results are not made public.
This shift followed a January ruling by the El Paso examiner that a separate detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died Jan. 3, had in fact died by asphyxia due to neck and torso compression — a finding classified as a homicide. That conclusion contradicted ICE’s own earlier descriptions of Campos’s death as medical distress or suicide.
Diaz’s family, represented by attorney Randall Kallinen, said public outcry over the homicide determination may have influenced ICE’s decision to change course. “Why did they go against their previous practice?” he asked.
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Advocates such as Human Rights Watch argue the issue isn’t only where the autopsy happens but who controls the investigation and whether it remains independent from DHS custodial oversight.
The events at the Fort Bliss detention site mark at least three deaths in a short period, including one previously attributed to medical complications, and have intensified calls for greater transparency and independent review of deaths in federal immigration custody.
As Diaz’s military autopsy report remains private, families and rights groups are pushing for clearer answers to how these deaths occurred and whether systemic failures or abuses contributed to them.
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