Were Heber Sanchez Dominguez, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis GustavoNunes Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos all killed by ICE in 2026?
Executive summary
Three of the four names listed in the question — Luis Beltran Yanez‑Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos — died while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the first 10 days of 2026, and reporting shows differing causes and levels of official culpability; the name Heber Sanchez Dominguez does not appear in the provided reporting, and there is no sourced evidence here that he was killed by ICE [1] [2] [3].
1. What the contemporaneous reporting actually documents
Multiple news outlets and advocacy groups reported that four people — including Luis Beltran Yanez‑Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos — were pronounced dead while detained by federal immigration authorities in early January 2026, and those deaths were disclosed in ICE or DHS statements and local reporting [1] [2] [4] [5].
2. The clear homicide finding in one case: Geraldo Lunas Campos
Local reporting and the El Paso medical examiner’s office found that Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana, died from “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” and the death was officially ruled a homicide by the El Paso medical examiner — a determination that directly implicates lethal force or restraint as the physiological cause of death [3].
3. Hospital deaths tied to cardiac problems for two Honduran detainees
By contrast, ICE statements and multiple outlets report that Luis Gustavo Núñez Caceres, 42, and Luis Beltran Yanez‑Cruz, 68, were treated at area hospitals and pronounced dead after what ICE described as heart‑related medical issues or chronic heart conditions — Núñez Caceres died Jan. 5 in the Houston area and Yanez‑Cruz died Jan. 6 in Indio, California, per reporting that cites ICE and hospital accounts [1] [2] [4] [6].
4. The name Heber Sanchez Dominguez is absent from these sources — a critical limitation
None of the supplied reporting mentions Heber Sanchez Dominguez; therefore the evidence set provided does not support a claim that he was killed by ICE in 2026 and cannot be used to assert that he did or did not die in ICE custody — reporters’ silence in these sources is an evidentiary gap that must be acknowledged (no source).
5. Competing narratives, accountability and why distinctions matter
Coverage shows a split between cases where ICE characterizes deaths as medical events treated in hospitals and at least one case where a medical examiner ruled homicide after physical restraint — advocacy groups and eyewitnesses have publicly contested ICE accounts in the El Paso case, and local autopsy findings have driven renewed scrutiny and calls for independent investigations into detention practices and use of force [3] [7] [5]. That distinction matters legally and politically: “died in custody” is not the same as “killed by ICE,” but an official homicide ruling (as in Lunas Campos’s autopsy) is a concrete finding that the actions of people restraining him produced the fatal result [3].
6. Bottom line answer to the question asked
Based on the provided reporting: Luis Beltran Yanez‑Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos all died while in ICE custody in early January 2026, and Geraldo Lunas Campos’s death was later ruled a homicide by the El Paso medical examiner [1] [2] [3]. The reporting supplied does not include any reference to Heber Sanchez Dominguez, so there is no documented evidence in these sources that he was killed by ICE in 2026 (no source).