<\/p>\n
The first emergency call about a detainee trying to harm himself came about a month after Camp East Montana \u2014 an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas \u2014 started to house immigrants. It was 2:50 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a patient currently in holding who is saying he\u2019s got suicidal ideations, swallowed some foreign object, has refused our basic medical care here,\u201d a nurse told the operator. In the audio, you can hear that someone is moaning and yelling in the background.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point he is unable to speak and rolling on the floor in agonizing pain, holding his stomach,\u201d the nurse continued. \u201cA preliminary X-ray was done and a foreign object was found. We just need to take him to the hospital that\u2019s closest so that they can verify if the object is currently in his system and possibly to excavate the object.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been reporting on Camp East Montana for months. It sits on barren military land and was supposed to be a model for how the Trump administration would carry out mass deportations. Instead, it became an example of what could go wrong. It remains in operation despite claims of inhumane conditions and abuse<\/a>, which Department of Homeland Security officials have said are \u201ccategorically false.\u201d ICE plans to keep the facility running<\/a> at least through Sept. 30, 2027, The Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n In the span of six weeks between December 2025 and January 2026, three men died at Camp East Montana, making it one of the country\u2019s deadliest detention centers at the time.<\/p>\n In July, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune published my investigation<\/a> into the Jan. 3 death of one of those men, Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban national with a history of mental illness. He died after an altercation with guards over his medication, and a medical examiner ruled Lunas Campos\u2019 death a homicide. (The Trump administration initially claimed that he had experienced medical distress, but Department of Homeland Security officials later said guards had used force to keep him from killing himself<\/a>.)<\/p>\n