A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down and he stopped breathing, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide.
Geraldo Lunas Campos died Jan. 3 following an altercation with guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) originally said the 55-year-old father of four was attempting suicide and the staff tried to save him.
But a witness told The Associated Press last week that Lunas Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.
At least 30 people died in ICE custody last year, the highest level in two decades, agency figures show. In the first 10 days of 2026, four immigrants, including Lunas Campos, died while in federal immigration custody.
Keep in mind that ‘homicide’ in this context has a different meaning than the legal sense. They are not making any determination of a crime or justification. All they are doing is saying that the person died because of the actions of another human, rather than it being self-inflicted or by natural causes.
Which is a good first step to getting a conviction in court for homicide.
I was about to comment that “died from homicide” sounds like a very roundabout way of saying “was murdered”. I realise that “was killed” would be more appropriate, and I’m still wondering why they wouldn’t just write that.
There are a number of reasons why someone can die from homicide in the medical sense, but not the legal sense. For instance, self-defense.
Most places have some variation on these types of homicide:
- Aggravated homicide, where the murder was planned
- 2nd degree homicide, where it wasn’t planned but could reasonably be foreseen (e.g. savagely beating someone with a bat)
- Voluntary manslaughter/negligent homicide, such as knowingly driving a car with malfunctioning brakes
- Involuntary manslaughter, such as losing control of your car because of ice.
There’s also situations where it isn’t a crime at all, but would still be medically homicide. I mentioned self-defense, but someone could get shot by a hunter because they were in the woods without an orange vest. There’s also certain cases where it’s legal for police to shoot someone, due to an active threat.
All of these would be medically homicide, but only some would be called murder.
How is that different from the legal sense?
Because a coroner doesn’t have the authority to lay charges. They simply find the cause of death, and in this case it was a homicide.
I see. Thank you.
You’re welcome. :)
Lying Immigration Customs Enforcement = LICE
And the crowd goes wild! Spineless Americans just love this shit. What a nasty country it’s become. Maybe always has been.
What the actual fuck are you talking about?
They’re probably just a troll, account’s only a couple weeks old
Talking about all you 2a fucks doing dick all. 40 years all I’ve heard is 2a this and 2a that. Turns out it was just an excuse for daily school shootings.
And we’re told in Canada how we don’t have freedom, we don’t have guns to defend ourselves, so on and so on. But when push comes to shove, it’s America that is 350 million bootlickers who eat Donald Trunps shit up and couldn’t be bothered to raise a finger.
But hey do another “No Kings” protest or some other useless shit. You have one every few months, right? Really moving the needle?
WAKE UP
I’m with you. Decades and decades of americans watching action movies and stroking their guns whilst thinking about what they’d do if someone comes along and tries to take over…yet when a fat, old, orange, child raping, failed reality TV star comes along and takes over there’s not as much as a fucking whimper. Pathetic, really.
Maybe a piss poor protest every 5 or so months will have the obese imbecile shaking in his boots…?
Sounds like you might benefit from some therapy, buddy.