ICE Detainee Death Raises Concerns for Migrant Safety

A 41-year-old Salvadoran national, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, has died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey, further raising concerns for the safety of migrants in ICE custody.

Source: cdnph.upi.com

Lopez-Cornejo died on Saturday at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, where he was taken after experiencing a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, a private immigration detention facility operated by the GEO Group under a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract.

This incident marks at least the 54th person to die in ICE custody since President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to a U.S. Press International (UPI) count of ICE detainee-death reports.

Lopez-Cornejo had been in the United States for more than 20 years, according to Democratic lawmakers. He originally entered the country in August 2006 and was removed from the country that October. However, it is unclear when he re-entered the country, but ICE said he was arrested by immigration law enforcement on June 18 amid Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

ICE stated that Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals. The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination, it said.

However, Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about the treatment of migrants in ICE custody. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said in a recorded statement that Lopez-Cornejo died of an apparent heart attack, while Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J., stated that Lopez-Cornejo had complained of ‘difficulties’ he was experiencing before collapsing at the detention facility.

Detention facility staff performed CPR on Lopez-Cornejo, who was then transported by emergency services to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Saturday afternoon, Menendez said. He added that lawmakers asked ICE medical questions about the man’s medical care and death but were told they would need to make a formal request.

This incident is not an isolated case. A man suffered what lawmakers believe was a seizure shortly after being detained and Delaney Hall last month and was transferred to the hospital, where he later died. ‘You didn’t hear about this because they released him to University Hospital, so he was no longer in ICE custody,’ Menendez said.

The incident has sparked renewed calls for the closure of Delaney Hall, which has been a site of controversy since it reopened as an ICE detention facility in May 2025 under a 15-year, $1 billion contract with ICE. Democratic lawmakers oppose its use to hold those arrested in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said he recently conducted an oversight inspection of the facility and stated that not one immigrant detained at Delaney Hall has a history of serious or violent crime. ‘Immigrants like Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo are dying senselessly in a detention facility that has no reason to exist,’ he said online.

Democrats have been demanding that the facility be closed, with those calls amplified following Lopez-Cornejo’s death. ‘We cannot allow these disturbing failures to continue unchecked,’ Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement.

‘We must speak out against these injustices, demand answers, and continue to call for the closure of Delaney Hall. Every person, regardless of their immigration status, deserves to be treated with dignity, humanity, respect, and care.’

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., called Delaney Hall ‘a stain on our country.’ ‘Its continued use is a daily reminder of the cruelty of our immigration and criminal justice systems,’ she said online.

‘It should be shut down at once, and those responsible for its inhumane conditions should be investigated and tried.’

According to an ICE document dated June 2, ICE eliminated a provision from its detainee-death reporting policy, meaning it was no longer required to make public certain deaths occurring within 30 days after a person’s release from custody.

Menendez stated that ICE changed its policy to keep the number of detainee deaths in ICE custody as low as possible.

‘So you have two deaths within a matter of weeks of each other,’ he said.

If confirmed, this incident would be at least the third death connected to Delaney Hall in the last 12 months, including Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian immigrant, who died on December 12, 2025, a day after arriving at the facility. ICE officially reported two deaths of people detained at Delaney Hall.

During a congressional hearing on the conditions at Delaney Hall held less than two weeks ago, Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, alleged a ‘pattern’ of neglect at the facility, saying detainees there lack access to medical care, live in unsanitary conditions, eat inedible food, and live with broken air conditioning in 100-degree temperatures.

‘Every person I’ve spoken with, every letter that has come out of that facility tells some version of a similar account,’ he said. ‘When these individuals saw no other option, hundreds of them engaged in the hunger and labor strike for weeks to call attention to the injustices. And I think we can all agree on a simple truth: no one should have to starve themselves for the government to recognize their humanity.’

UPI has contacted ICE and GEO Group for comment.