The family of a Nicaraguan migrant who died at an ICE detention facility in Texas is pushing back against the Department of Homeland Security’s suggestion that his death may have been a suicide.
In a press release, DHS said that Victor Manuel Diaz died in ICE custody on Jan. 14 at Camp East Montana in El Paso, after staff found him “unconscious and unresponsive in his room.”
While the department noted that “the official cause of death remains under investigation,” they labeled the incident a “presumed suicide.”
However, Diaz’s family told ABC News they do not believe he took his own life and are calling for a full investigation.
Manuel Diaz is the third detainee to die at the facility since it opened last year.
The family said it’s concerned that, unlike the two previous deaths at the site, an autopsy of Manuel Diaz is not being conducted by the local medical examiner.
Randall Kallinen, a Texas-based attorney representing the family, said he learned that Manuel Diaz’s body was taken to William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, where he was told an autopsy was underway.
VIctor Manuel Diaz’s family told ABC News they want a full investigation into his death
Texas Nicaragua Community/Facebook
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that the body of Manuel Diaz was sent to the Beaumont Medical Center, but DHS officials did not respond to questions from ABC News regarding why it was not sent to the local medical examiner.
An official with the El Paso Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC News they have no record of Manuel Diaz’s death, and referred all inquiries to ICE.
Officials at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center did not respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
Kallinen said that he is pushing for an independent autopsy.
“He was the only one from that family who was in the United States, and his mother said the reason he was in the United States was to get together money and then return to Nicaragua to build a house where the mother and he could live,” Kallinen told ABC News.
In a phone interview from Nicaragua, Yorlan Diaz said his brother was apprehended by immigration authorities in Minnesota. The family last spoke with him on Jan. 9 and said they learned of his detention through his employer.
Victor Manuel Diaz died at Camp East Montana in Texas.
Texas Nicaragua Community/Facebook
According to Yorlan Diaz, federal authorities contacted the family on Jan. 15 to inform them of his death.
“I don’t believe he took his life,” Yorlan Diaz said. “He was not a criminal; he was looking for a better life and he wanted to help our mother.”
Manuel Diaz’s death follows the death of 55-year-old Geraldo Lunas Campos at Camp East Montana on Jan. 3. On Tuesday, an El Paso County autopsy report ruled that Campos’ death was a homicide.
A federal judge recently granted a petition filed by Campos’ attorneys to prevent the deportation of witnesses who allege that guards choked and asphyxiated him.