Another Death, More Questions: El Paso Detention Center Under Fire
Victor Manuel Diaz never made it out of the United States alive. The 36-year-old Nicaraguan immigrant, swept up by ICE agents in Minneapolis, ended his days not in court, but at Camp East Montana—a controversial Texas detention center with a reputation that’s getting darker by the week.
ICE called it a “presumed suicide,” reporting Diaz’s death on January 18, just days after he received his final removal order. He’s the third detainee to die inside the walls of East Montana since it opened its doors less than six months ago. The so-called “camp” is looking more like a headline generator than a solution to anything.
A Pattern of Tragedy
Diaz’s death is far from an isolated incident. Camp East Montana, built on the sprawling grounds of Fort Bliss, is racking up more than just detainees. Two others have died in the same facility since November: Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, a 48-year-old Guatemalan, died after less than three weeks in custody.
Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban immigrant, met a possibly more violent end—authorities are investigating his death as a likely homicide.
In just the first 15 weeks of operation, the facility has rung up nearly 90 emergency 911 calls. That's not a typo. If this were a summer camp, it would’ve been shut down before the marshmallows ever hit the fire.
A Facility Under the Microscope
Camp East Montana opened for business in August 2025, and by December it was holding over 3,000 people—a population that would make it a small town, if only the residents were there by choice.
Civil rights groups and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) have been shouting from the rooftops about the conditions inside the fortress-like facility. Reports of physical violence, attempts to coerce detainees into “self-deportation,” and construction shortcuts that would make any building inspector faint have all come to light. The ACLU is on it. And now, with another body on the tally, the spotlight isn’t going anywhere.
Minneapolis: The New Front Line?
Diaz’s journey to Camp East Montana began in Minneapolis, a city now teeming with federal agents thanks to President Trump’s turbocharged immigration sweeps. The Minnesota operation isn’t exactly winning hearts and minds; it’s already under scrutiny after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good on January 7. The message is loud and clear: No one is safe from this dragnet.
A Nationwide Pattern of Neglect
Diaz’s death is just one in a string of fatalities in U.S. immigration detention this year—six and counting since January 1. The government’s answer to the immigration “problem” seems to be more walls, more agents, and more overcrowded camps, with little regard for what happens inside those walls. The bodies are piling up, and the questions are getting louder: Who’s accountable? Who’s watching? And who’s next?
Camp East Montana was supposed to be a solution. Instead, it’s becoming a cautionary tale. For Victor Manuel Diaz and others like him, the American immigration maze ended not with a new life, but with a statistic. And for the rest of us, the story is just beginning.
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