How many deaths in ICE custody were classified as homicides by medical examiners in 2025–2026?
Executive summary
Medical examiners have publicly classified one death of a person in ICE custody as a homicide in the 2025–2026 timeframe: the January 3, 2026 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, which multiple outlets reported the El Paso County medical examiner was likely to deem a homicide [1] [2] [3]. Reporting through mid-January 2026 does not identify other deaths from 2025 or early 2026 that have been formally certified as homicides by medical examiners in available sources; the larger corpus of deaths in ICE custody in 2025 — reported at about 30–32 fatalities — includes no additional, confirmed homicide classifications in the material reviewed [4] [5] [6].
1. One reported medical-examiner homicide: the case at Fort Bliss
Multiple news organizations reported that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos on January 3, 2026, at Camp East Montana — the sprawling tent camp at Fort Bliss — was likely to be classified as a homicide by the El Paso County medical examiner, after witness accounts that he was choked by guards [2] [1] [3]. People magazine and other outlets described the medical examiner’s finding as classifying the death as a homicide attributed to ICE agents, and that description has circulated in subsequent coverage [7]. Those accounts are the only ones in the provided reporting that tie a medical-examiner homicide determination specifically to a death in ICE custody during the period in question [1] [2] [7] [3].
2. Context: a spike in deaths but not in confirmed homicides
2025 was widely reported as the deadliest year for ICE custody in roughly two decades, with outlets citing agency figures and analyses showing roughly 30–32 deaths that year — The Guardian’s count of 32, Reuters’s summary of at least 30, and corroborating compilations such as Wikipedia and other outlets [4] [8] [5] [6]. That surge in fatalities prompted intense scrutiny, but the sources reviewed do not show multiple medical-examiner homicide rulings across that larger set of deaths; the publicly noted potential homicide classification centered on the January 2026 case [4] [5] [6].
3. Conflicting official accounts and the limits of public reporting
Department of Homeland Security and ICE statements disputed aspects of the Campos case, including claims that he attempted suicide and “violently resisted” officers — an alternative framing that the administration used in media briefings and emails to reporters [3] [9]. Reuters and the Guardian documented shifting and incomplete official accounts as journalists sought clarity, underscoring that formal criminal or administrative findings can lag and that public reporting sometimes relies on medical-examiner language that is provisional or under investigation [1] [3].
4. Why a single medical-examiner homicide matters — and why it may be only the first step
A homicide classification by a county medical examiner is a forensic finding about manner of death; it can trigger criminal investigations, administrative reviews, and policy scrutiny, but it is not by itself a final legal determination of culpability [2] [3]. The prominent reporting around the Fort Bliss death highlights how a single medical-examiner ruling can reshape narratives about detention operations, especially amid a broader increase in detainees and fatalities in 2025 [4] [8].
5. Caveats, transparency gaps and possible reporting biases
News outlets used differing totals for 2025 deaths (about 30 to 32) reflecting agency counts, independent tallies and the timing of reports — and no comprehensive public database within the sources lists multiple medical-examiner homicide findings for 2025–early 2026 beyond the Fort Bliss case [4] [5] [6]. Advocacy outlets and some media emphasize systemic neglect and patterns of deaths [10], while ICE’s public statements emphasize medical care protocols and frame some deaths as natural or self-inflicted [9]; readers should note each source’s institutional perspective and potential agendas when interpreting counts and classifications.
6. Bottom line
Based on the reporting provided, one death in ICE custody in the 2025–2026 period has been reported as classified (or likely to be classified) as a homicide by a medical examiner — the January 3, 2026 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos — and the reviewed sources do not document additional medical-examiner homicide rulings among the roughly 30–32 deaths reported in 2025 [1] [2] [3] [4] [6]. Absent further official medical-examiner releases or legally binding determinations disclosed after the cited reports, that count remains the only confirmed homicide classification visible in these sources.