Angela Kocherga
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
and called for emergency medical help.
ICE says the death is a presumed suicide.
And earlier this month, ICE reported a 55-year-old man named Geraldo Lunas Campos tried to take his own life and staff intervened to save him, but he died.
Both cases are under investigation.
The third death in custody happened in early December.
That was 48-year-old Francisco Gaspar Andres.
He died after he was transported to a local hospital for a medical condition.
So the Department of Homeland Security oversees ICE.
In an emailed response yesterday to a question about medical care at the facility, DHS said it has a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care in custody, and that includes medical and mental health intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at a facility.
DHS said there's also access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.
Human rights advocates and multiple lawyers have lots of concerns, and they've documented cases of medical neglect, physical abuse, and unsanitary conditions at the facility known as Camp East Montana.
And all of those were included in a report by the ACLU.
Marisa Limon Garza is the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
And El Paso's Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a Democrat, toured the facility when it opened in August and she's calling for it to shut down.
Escobar is among 122 members of her party supporting legislation to create enhanced oversight for detention centers and phase out private contractors over three years.
ICE says Victor Manuel Diaz died at the tent facility last Wednesday.
The 36-year-old from Nicaragua had been in custody since January 6, when ICE says agents encountered him in Minneapolis and determined he was in the country illegally.
According to ICE, staff at the massive detention camp in El Paso found Diaz unconscious and called for emergency medical help.
ICE says the death is a presumed suicide.
There are conflicting reports about another death at the camp that ICE says was suicide.