EL PASO, TX — A federal judge is set to hear arguments over whether the Trump administration can deport detainees reportedly present when a Cuban migrant died inside a Texas detention facility earlier this month.
The family of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, has filed a "petition to perpetuate testimony" requesting that Santos Jesus Flores, Antonio Ascon Frometa, and several other migrants remain in the United States as the family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The migrants would be called to testify in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Lunas Campos' family. Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones will preside over the hearing at 1:30 p.m. local time on Jan. 27, at the Albert Armendariz Sr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown El Paso.
Lunas Campos died in custody on Jan. 3 at the Camp East Montana detention center, the largest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the country. The facility is located on Fort Bliss property in East El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Jan. 21, the El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled Lunas Campos’ Jan. 3 death a homicide, the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. The autopsy report showed his cause of death as "asphyxia due to neck and torso compression."
