Attorney for third migrant detainee who died at Camp East Montana reads family statement
Heriberto Perez Lara
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Over two months after 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz from Nicaragua was pronounced dead while under ICE custody at Camp East Montana, his family was able to pay their last respects to him.
ABC-7 reported back in January that Randall Kallinen, the attorney representing Diaz’s family, had just started an investigation into Diaz’s death; now the family still wants to know what happened to him.
The Department of Homeland Security told ABC-7 in January that Diaz’s body was transported to William Beaumont Army Medical Center, north of Fort Bliss, where an autopsy is being performed by Army officials and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner’s Office. This raised questions about why the two previous migrants who died were not taken there and were instead taken to the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office.
In a written statement, DHS and ICE told ABC-7 today:
“Deaths occurring at Camp East Montana fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction and should be coordinated with the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner. That jurisdictional process was applied in the case of Victor Manuel Diaz, in which ICE notified and coordinated with the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner.”
Civil Rights Attorney based in Houston, Texas, Randall Kallinen, told ABC-7 today during the family’s written statement that Diaz was greatly loved by them. They are poor rural people in Nicaragua, as jobs are scarce, but he used to send money and aid to his family when he was working in Minnesota before ICE detained him.
Diaz tried to earn enough money to start building a house for them in Nicaragua. He was law-abiding and had never had any trouble or issues back home; he was detained in the U.S. after missing an immigration court hearing.
“We have laid Victor to rest in this country (Nicaragua) and we cannot rest,” Attorney Kallinen read from the family’s statement.
“We have seen the people of El Paso question what happened in their city with the several deaths at Camp East Montana and the very poor living conditions there,” they added. “We thank every person in El Paso who questions what is happening at Camp East Montana and is trying to make it safe.”
Attorney Kallinen also pointed out that he has tried to contact other clients he has at Camp East Montana by setting up in-person lawyer visits, but ICE and DHS recently reinstated the measles quarantine, which doesn’t allow any visitors, no matter who they are — family or lawyers, according to him.
DHS and ICE have not confirmed whether the measles quarantine has been reinstated at Camp East Montana once again.
“Those policy determinations are made at the camp, as the camp is the one with the cameras, the camp is the one with the detainees, the camp is the one with the videos, and they’re the only ones who control all of that,” Kallinen added. “That was one of the conditions that was complained about a few months ago when the ACLU and the Texas Civil Rights Project sent a letter detailing all of the severe problems at Camp East Montana, which include not enough food, bad food, no medical care and as gross as it sounds, human feces in the eating areas.”
Other local and regional organizations have also complained about detainees not having any contact with legal counsel. “That had gotten better, but now it’s right back to the worst it ever was; no legal counsel,” attorney Kallinen added.