A mysterious death inside ICE's largest detention center

ICE最大拘留中心内发生的神秘死亡事件

Post Reports

2026-01-22

19 分钟
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When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the death of a detainee at a Texas detention camp this month, the agency initially gave no cause of death. A fellow detainee said he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards; ICE said “staff observed him in distress.”  Seeking answers, Lunas Campos’s family called El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner, and an employee told them that – subject to the result of a toxicology report – the office is likely to classify Lunas Campos’s death as a homicide.  Today on “Post Reports,” investigative reporter Douglas MacMillan tries to find out what really caused the death of a detainee – and takes us inside the black box of the largest detention camp in the United States.  Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick, Dennis Funk and Martine Powers and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks also to Juliet Eilperin.  Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • For the chief investigator, please press three.

  • 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.