EL PASO, Texas – A harrowing Washington Post report released Thursday found that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father detained at an immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, will likely be ruled a homicide due to asphyxiation after a witness at the facility claims they saw guards choke him to death. The report comes weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that Lunas Campos died at the facility after alleging staff “witnessed him in distress.”

“The death of Geraldo Lunas Campos is the latest in a string of preventable deaths by ICE and illustrates a broader pattern of unchecked violence and abuse carried out by ICE against members of our communities on the taxpayer’s dime,” said Haddy Gassama, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “The record breaking 32 deaths in ICE custody last year marked the deadliest year for the agency in nearly two decades. These deaths in detention facilities, coupled with the continued escalation of violence by federal agents in our streets, paint a grim picture of what happens when a government agency has an astronomical budget and no accountability. We cannot allow these deaths to become daily occurrences or this violence to continue to be inflicted – and we need Congress to shut down the Fort Bliss detention camp once and for all.”