A third undocumented immigrant detained at a sprawling tent camp in the Texas desert has died, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Sunday, in the third such death in 44 days.
Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss, an Army base in El Paso, is one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country, with 2,903 detainees as of Jan. 8, according to ICE data. The facility is a soft-sided tent-style structure, which ICE increasingly favors over brick-and-mortar buildings.
ICE identified the detainee as Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, from Nicaragua, who first encountered ICE officers in Minneapolis. He was pronounced dead at 4:09 p.m. Wednesday after contract security staff members found him “unconscious and unresponsive” in his room, the agency said in a news release.
“He died of a presumed suicide; however, the official cause of his death remains under investigation,” ICE said in the release. ICE did not immediately respond to an email asking why it presumes Diaz died by suicide.
In recent months, members of Congress have raised concerns about safety at the facility, which opened in August. President Donald Trump has pushed for mass deportation of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and his administration has dramatically increased ICE detentions.
Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, a Camp East Montana detainee from Guatemala, died at The Hospitals of Providence East, a general hospital in El Paso, on Dec. 3. In a Dec. 5 news release, ICE said that his cause of death was pending but that “medical staff attributed it to natural liver and kidney failure.”
Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, from Cuba, died in custody Jan. 3 after having experienced what ICE characterized as “medical distress.” The cause of death was under investigation, the agency said in a Jan. 9 news release.
In a news release, ICE said staff members observed Lunas in “distress” while he was in “segregation,” meaning he was housed separately from the facility’s general population. ICE’s statement said Lunas was put in segregation after he “became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm.”
“Medical staff responded, initiated lifesaving measures, and requested emergency medical services. Lunas was pronounced deceased by EMS,” ICE said.
NBC News has contacted the medical examiner in El Paso County for more information about the causes of death for all three detainees but has not received a response.
In a statement, ICE said in part that it is “committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments.”
