A Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit released today said evidence was destroyed or went missing regarding the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a federal immigration detainee whose death a medical examiner later ruled a homicide by asphyxiation.
The GAO reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed a “discrepancy report” in February noting that the private contractor that previously operated the Camp East Montana detention facility in Texas had failed to provide the agency with use-of-force and death reports regarding a January death of a detainee by use of force. The GAO report does not name the detainee, but the details match Lunas Campos, who died on January 3 after an altercation with guards at the camp.
“In addition, evidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed,” the GAO report said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially claimed that Lunas Campos had attempted to commit suicide and died during a struggle in which “guards were trying to save him.” However, the El Paso Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death a homicide by asphyxiation. Multiple detainee witnesses told news outlets that guards choked Lunas Campos to death after he refused to stop asking for his medication.
“The officers entered, grabbed him,” one detainee told Zeteo, “and the last thing we could hear him say was: ‘They are choking me, they are choking me.'”
An internal ICE inspection of Camp East Montana earlier this year uncovered dozens of violations of national detention standards, including failures to document use-of-force and medical care, and failure to respond to grievances about lack of medical care. A detainee with tuberculosis wasn’t isolated; another detainee escaped.
The GAO report also found that ICE wasted millions of dollars expediting the awarding of the contract and the opening of Camp East Montana. ICE terminated its contract and switched to a new private contractor in April.
DHS did not respond to an inquiry for additional details regarding the missing or destroyed evidence. However, a DHS spokesperson says the new contractor will “allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards WITH the ability to provide MORE medical care on-site.”
“This contract also allows more on-site staff and a PRECISE quality assurance surveillance plan,” the spokesperson continued. “ICE will have even more oversight of the contractors at this facility. Far from closing, Camp East Montana is upgrading.”
Allegations of medical neglect, brutality, and lack of due process have poured out of federal immigration detention centers since the Trump administration launched its mass deportation program. Another medical examiner’s report recently obtained by Reason found that an ICE detainee died of complications from a severe tooth infection.
Since Trump’s second inauguration, 50 people have died in ICE custody.
