Breaking — ICE Guards Choked a Man to Death. He Said "I Can't Breathe."

The medical examiner is ruling it homicide. ICE said he was "in distress."

While others stenograph, grift, or chase the next distraction—this is the news that matters and how it’s connected.

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On January 3—the same day Trump launched his invasion of Venezuela—guards at an ICE detention camp in Texas choked a man to death.

His name was Geraldo Lunas Campos. He was 55. According to a fellow detainee who watched it happen, at least five guards held him down and compressed his neck and chest while he said the words we’ve heard before: “No puedo respirar.”

I can’t breathe.

The El Paso County medical examiner told his daughter this week that the preliminary cause of death is “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression”—and that the office will likely classify it as homicide.¹

ICE’s public statement? They said staff “observed him in distress.” They gave no cause of death.¹

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The Cover-Up

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the medical examiner’s call with Lunas Campos’s daughter. They reviewed an internal ICE log. Six days after his death, the log references an “immediate use-of-force incident”—but provides no date and no details.¹

DHS declined to comment. The FBI is now investigating.¹

Here’s what ICE didn’t tell you: Santos Jesus Flores, a detainee the Post confirmed was in the segregation unit that day, says he saw guards choking Lunas Campos after he refused to enter segregation because he didn’t have his medications.¹

“He said, ‘I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe.’ After that, we don’t hear his voice anymore and that’s it.”¹

Medical staff tried to resuscitate him for an hour. Then they took his body away.

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Not an Isolated Incident

Four days after guards choked Lunas Campos to death in Texas, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good in the head in Minneapolis. ICE called that “self-defense” too—until video showed her car’s wheels turned away from the officer. Yesterday, agents tear-gassed a car full of children. Today, the president threatened to send in the military.

This isn’t a few bad apples. This is what happens when you flood an agency with undertrained recruits, tell them the people they’re detaining are “animals,” and make clear that no one will be held accountable.

Lunas Campos is one of four people who died in ICE detention in the first nine days of 2026.¹ Last year, 30 people died in ICE custody—the highest in two decades.¹ Camp East Montana, where he died, is the largest ICE facility in the country—3,800+ detainees in a tent encampment where ICE’s own inspectors cited dozens of violations and detainees report being beaten for complaining.¹

This is not a detention system. This is a killing floor.

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A Note on the Victim

ICE made sure to mention that Lunas Campos had a criminal record, including a 2003 conviction for sexual abuse of a child. They said “his luck has finally run out.”¹

Let’s be clear: None of that justifies what happened. Guards are not executioners. Detention is not a death sentence. If you believe in law and order, you believe people in custody have rights—including the right not to be choked to death while begging for air.

If you don’t believe that, you don’t believe in law and order. You believe in power.

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There's more below, but first: The Washington Post broke this story. We're here to connect it to the pattern—the shooting in Minneapolis, the gassed children, the president floating election cancellation. If you value analysis that names what's happening and tracks how it fits together, please consider supporting The American Manifesto. Paid subscriptions make this work possible.

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The Pattern

We’ve been mapping this administration against the fascism syndrome—ten indicators that a democracy is backsliding into fascism:

• Normalization of political violence: Guards choked a man to death while he said “I can’t breathe.” Four dead in nine days. Thirty in a year. This is policy, not aberration.

• War on reality: ICE said he was “in distress.” The medical examiner says homicide. The gap between those statements is a cover-up.

• Weaponized justice: His criminal record doesn’t justify extrajudicial killing. But ICE cited it anyway—because they know some people will think it does.

This is what impunity looks like. When the president calls migrants "animals," when the agency knows no one will be held accountable, when the response to public outrage is military threats instead of investigation—violence doesn't decrease. It accelerates. Choking. Shooting. Gassing children. Threatening soldiers. Each escalation tests how much we'll tolerate. Each silence is permission for the next one.

This is the pattern. This is the regime.

Want to understand how we got here?

The Freedom Illusion — Part I

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Your Move

• “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry after George Floyd. What does it mean when the same words are spoken in a federal detention camp—and covered up?

• ICE cited his criminal record to justify... what, exactly? What do you call someone who thinks certain people deserve to be choked to death?

• Who needs to see this story? Share it. The cover-up only works if we let them bury it.

1. Douglas MacMillan, “Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says“, The Washington Post, January 15, 2026.

Documents the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at Camp East Montana. Reports medical examiner told his daughter the preliminary cause is “asphyxia due to neck and chest compression” and the manner of death will likely be ruled homicide. Includes eyewitness account from fellow detainee Santos Jesus Flores, who says he saw five guards choking Lunas Campos while he said “I can’t breathe.” Notes ICE’s public statement gave no cause of death, FBI is investigating, and 30 people died in ICE custody in 2025—the highest in two decades.