A Nicaraguan man who died at a Texas immigration detention camp was initially reported as having died by suicide days after he was detained by federal immigration agents in Minnesota, according to a 911 call and records released this week.
Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, was found by guards on Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, after he was reported to have tried to die by suicide. The Associated Press reported that the 911 caller said guards “just found him with his pants tied up to his neck,” and that a team of doctors and nurses were working to try to revive Diaz, with dispatchers told an ambulance was needed.
ICE later described the death as a presumed suicide while investigations continued. The agency said security staff “found Diaz unconscious and unresponsive in his room,” and that he “died of a presumed suicide,” adding that the cause was still under investigation.
Emergency medical services records released alongside the AP reporting said Diaz was suspected of hanging himself with a bed sheet. Federal authorities had not released the findings of an autopsy, but they had said the death was a “presumed suicide.” Diaz’s body also was not sent to the county medical examiner in El Paso for an autopsy, the AP reported; Diaz’s family attorney, Randall Kallinen, said he had been told an Armed Forces pathologist conducted the autopsy at Fort Bliss and that it could take months for findings to be released.
ICE picked up Diaz on Jan. 6, after agents fanned out across Minneapolis looking for people who may be in the country illegally, and then sent him to the Texas detention complex. ICE said Diaz crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2024, requested asylum and was released, and that an immigration judge later ordered his removal after he did not show up for an immigration hearing.
After ICE told Diaz’s family on Jan. 15 that he was dead, relatives in Nicaragua said they were in disbelief. Carlos Morales, board president of Texas Nicaraguan Community, said family members “were in disbelief,” and the nonprofit helped raise money to repatriate Diaz’s remains to Nicaragua.
Kallinen said the family is suspicious of the claim that Diaz’s death was a suicide. He asked, “Even if it is suicide, was there something that happened to him that drove him to suicide? There still has to be an investigation,” according to the AP report.
The deaths have renewed calls to close Camp East Montana. A coalition of groups and a Democratic congresswoman who represents El Paso have called for the camp to be closed, according to the AP. The scrutiny comes as the camp, which opened last year at Fort Bliss, has seen multiple deaths in detainee housing, with advocates alleging violence, abuse and neglect.
The case follows a Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, of Cuba, which a medical examiner ruled was a homicide after citing physical restraint by guards. A witness described guards pinning Lunas Campos to the ground in handcuffs, including a chokehold until he could no longer breathe. ICE said guards intervened to try to help after Lunas Campos attempted suicide and that he resisted them, and it said guards had intervened after he tried to harm himself.
ICE also announced that on Dec. 3, Francisco Gaspar-Andres, 48, died after being transferred to an El Paso hospital for care. ICE said he was suspected to have died of liver and kidney failure, and the AP report said the agency has not released autopsy findings in Diaz’s case.
Messages seeking comment were left with ICE, the AP reported.