Colleen Deguzman, The Texas Tribune

Cuban man’s death at El Paso tent camp was result of “spontaneous use of force,” ICE says

by Lomi Kriel and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
February 20, 2026

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials this week reported that the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at a detention facility in El Paso was the result of the staff’s “spontaneous use of force” to “prevent him from harming himself.” Officials quietly updated the cause of death after previously declaring last month that the man died of “medical distress.”

The finding comes weeks after the local medical examiner ruled Geraldo Lunas Campos’ death a homicide, the first such ruling for an ICE detainee’s death linked to staff in at least 15 years, according to experts. Lunas Campos became “unresponsive while being physically restrained by law enforcement,” his autopsy found, dying of asphyxia, meaning he couldn’t breathe because of pressure on his neck and chest.

In ICE’s report this week, investigators wrote that Lunas Campos, who was being detained at Camp East Montana on the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base, had a “complex medical and mental health history,” including prior treatment for tuberculosis, depression, anxiety and asthma, as well as a history of suicide attempts and “long-term psychotropic medication use.”

ICE officials wrote in that report that while detained at Camp East Montana, Lunas Campos received “regular” medical evaluations, with staff noting “episodes of significant psychological distress, including multiple incidents of self-harm and suicide watch placements.”

Six El Paso detainees described in federal court statements last month that Lunas Campos, a father of three who had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years before being arrested last year, begged for days to receive his asthma medication. Detention staff refused and threatened him with solitary confinement, inmates said in the court filings.

On Jan. 3, ICE officials said Lunas Campos “attempted self-harm, prompting a rapid response from custody and medical staff.” The report noted “attempts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful.” He was pronounced dead at 10:16 p.m.

The finding is a stark contrast to the initial ICE news release claiming Lunas Campos died from “medical distress.” Only after the medical examiner advised his family that it might be a homicide did ICE officials allege a suicide attempt.

In a statement to The Texas Tribune Friday afternoon, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not give their name defended the report, claiming that Lunas Campos “violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life.”

During the ensuing struggle, the spokesperson wrote, Campos “stopped breathing and lost consciousness.” Medical staff was immediately called, but after repeated attempts to resuscitate him, he was declared dead.

Lunas Campos’ death “is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming,” the spokesperson said.

"This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” the spokesperson added. “No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip."

Federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday on whether ICE’s determination would prompt criminal charges.

Experts said that state prosecutors have precedent to pursue such charges despite the death occurring on military property, which is under federal jurisdiction.

“This is a moment where we need local law enforcement, local prosecutors to create accountability, because the federal government will not,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has visited the Fort Bliss camp more than half a dozen times.

She said that she believes local prosecutors have jurisdiction to prosecute the case although it happened on federal property because the staffers involved appear not to be ICE employees, but contractors.

“From what I understand, these are civilians. They're not law enforcement,” Escobar said in a recent interview. “They do not have the immunity the way that federal, state or local law enforcement officials have.”

Andra Litton, a special projects administrator for the El Paso District Attorney’s office, wrote in an email that the office continues to research whether it has jurisdiction to pursue charges, which she said is based on “the physical location of the facility, not the status or nature of employees involved.”

Camp East Montana was constructed in a record two months last summer after the government granted a $1.2 billion contract to Acquisition Logistics, a small Virginia corporation with no listed experience running detention facilities. The tent camp has been plagued with problems since it opened.

Since mid-December, three people have died there in a six-week span, beginning with a 48-year-old Guatemalan, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, who ICE said died on Dec. 3 of liver and kidney failure after being hospitalized for more than two weeks following detention. Eleven days after Lunas Campos’ death, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz marked the facility’s third fatality. ICE sent Diaz to a U.S. Army hospital rather than the local medical examiner, where a military spokesperson said that the agency would not make his autopsy public.

The East Montana camp had no policy detailing when or how contractors can use force, two officials who viewed an investigative report conducted by ICE last fall or were briefed by the agency told The Texas Tribune. Contractors were also provided only 40 hours of training, a fraction of at least 42 days typically required of regular ICE agents, according to those officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Acquisition Logistics and two of its contractors in charge of detention and medical care either did not immediately respond to questions late Friday or could not be reached.

The federal government tried to deport the six detainees who witnessed the final moments of Lunas Campos, who had long–standing previous criminal convictions including child sex assault. A federal judge in Texas blocked their removal until after they testified to lawyers who have filed a civil suit against the government in his death.

The whereabouts of those witnesses are currently unclear, said Chris Benoit, an attorney representing Lunas Campos’ three children.

In their federal testimony, detainees told lawyers that after pleading for his asthma medication, guards dragged Lunas Campos in shackles to an isolation unit. They recalled “what sounded like the slamming of a person’s body against the floor or a wall.” They said they heard him gasp that he could no longer breathe. Then, “silence.”

Fatalities in ICE custody are typically the result of poor medical care or suicides, said Scott Shuchart, a former head of policy at ICE under Biden and senior adviser under Trump’s first term to DHS’ Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

“Deaths from staff violence are another level,” he said, calling them “preventable, and the result of training and supervision failures."

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.

Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to ban two Muslim groups and their members from owning land in Texas

by Berenice Garcia, Joshua Fechter and Colleen DeGuzman, The Texas Tribune
November 18, 2025

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday named two Islamic groups as terrorist and criminal organizations, banning them and those associated with the groups from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas.

Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, as transnational criminal organizations.

In announcing the designation, Abbott accused the two groups of supporting terrorism across the world and of subverting Texas laws through harassment, intimidation and violence.

"The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable," Abbott said in a statement.

Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor CAIR is listed on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist groups.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a multinational organization with no central figure. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt. Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the Trump administration was considering designating the group or branches of the group as terrorist organizations but has not.

CAIR, a Muslim civil rights group, issued a statement saying they have consistently condemned all forms of unjust violence and said their condemnation of terrorism made their national director a target for ISIS.

"Although we are flattered by Greg Abbott's obsession with our civil rights organization, his publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation has no basis in fact or law," CAIR stated. "By defaming a prominent American Muslim institution with debunked conspiracy theories and made-up quotes, Mr. Abbott has once again shown that his top priority is advancing anti-Muslim bigotry, not serving the people of Texas."

They further stated the organization would be ready to mount a legal challenge if the declaration were to become actual policy.

Abbott's proclamation cites a new law that was approved by the Texas lawmakers earlier this year. The bill gave Abbott more power to ban property ownership by governmental entities, companies, and individuals from a country named in annual threat assessment reports prepared by the director of national security.

A similar law in Florida is making its way through the courts. A three-judge panel on the 11th 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the state to enforce its ban.

Abbott's proclamation cites a new law that was approved by the Texas lawmakers earlier this year. The bill gave Abbott more power to ban property ownership by governmental entities, companies, and individuals from a country named in the three most recent annual threat assessment reports prepared by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence

A similar law in Florida is making its way through the courts. A three-judge panel on the 11th 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is allowing the state to enforce its ban.

“This is in the sort of Islamophobic toolbox that Abbott is picking up to rehash this old conspiratorial thinking to criminalize Muslims,” said Habiba Noor, a lecturer at Trinity University.

Noor said framing CAIR as part of the Muslim Brotherhood is a conspiracy theory that has existed since it was founded in the 1990s. She speculated the recent flare-up of trying to tie the two together stems from plans to develop an Islamic community near Dallas.

The East Plano Islamic Center proposed a residential development, called EPIC City, that would include more than 1,000 residential units, a mosque, a K-12 faith-based school and retail shops, among other features.

The project drew controversy and became the subject of multiple investigations.

In an effort to stop the development, Abbott signed into law a bill prohibiting residential developments from building “Sharia compounds” and from discriminating against Texans. However, there are no indications that the organizers of EPIC City intend to operate under Sharia law.

Additionally, the corporation managing the development, Community Capital Partners, agreed to abide by the Texas Fair Housing Act and implement fair housing policies.

Tuesday’s proclamation would not apply to EPIC, which is a Texas-based nonprofit organization. CAIR is also not directly affiliated with EPIC, though the Dallas-Fort Worth office condemned Abbott’s investigation into EPIC City.

“The tie to land goes back to this conflict over EPIC City and so it's like yet another sort of move to kind of deny Muslims the right to develop properties together as a community,” Noor said.

State Rep. Cole Hefner, who sponsored the law, cheered Abbott on Tuesday.

“This move gives our state powerful new tools to stop extremist networks, block them from buying land, and hold anyone who aids or finances them accountable,” he said on in a statement on social media. “Texas will not allow groups tied to Hamas and global terrorism to take root here.

Disappointed, but not surprised

Since he was 10, Shayan Sajid has been attending Maryam Islamic Center in Sugarland, a suburb of Houston, which is estimated to be home to the state’s largest Muslim population. Sajid said that although Abbott’s announcement didn’t surprise him, he was disappointed.

"It's an unfortunate reminder that at times, living in this country and living in Texas, even being in a city as diverse as Houston, we still get so much Islamophobia,” Sajid said, “and not just from random individuals, but from very, you know, powerful individuals."

Sajid said CAIR “is literally something that's just out there to help individuals.”

“There's zero harm in it,” he continued. “I know individuals who do work for CAIR or who have worked for CAIR, like there's literally nothing there to be afraid of, nothing there that's tying them to any dangerous organizations or any dangerous intentions.”

Legal liablity

Abbott’s declaration opens up an array of potential constitutional issues, said Emily Berman, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center. Limiting property purchases based on viewpoints and religious affiliation could prove problematic under the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

“What is the motivation of these designations?” Berman said. “Is it about their religious views? Is it about their viewpoints on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which would be another First Amendment red flag? You can't discriminate on the basis of someone's viewpoint.”

The designation also raises due process concerns, Berman said, given that it’s not clear how groups can formally challenge the designation.

The U.S. Secretary of State holds the power to designate a group a foreign terrorist organization, though they must notify Congress and publish the designation in the Federal Register. An organization can appeal that designation within 30 days of that publication.

It’s not clear whether such a process exists at the state level. In the order, Abbott said he consulted with Freeman Martin, Texas Department of Public Safety director, and the state’s Homeland Security Council to determine whether to make the designation as required under state law. Whether groups can appeal the state-level designations is unclear.

It’s possible CAIR, for example, could challenge the law in court by arguing the state is overstepping its bounds by making laws around national security matters, Berman said.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.