Immigrant held at New Jersey ICE facility dies, officials say

By Alex Stambaugh, Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — A Salvadoran man being held at a controversial immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, has died, federal officials said Monday, marking the latest death of an immigrant in ICE custody.

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a migrant detained at the Delaney Hall detention center, was pronounced dead on Saturday by medical workers at University Hospital in Newark, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement.

The privately owned facility has been at the center of allegations of inhumane conditions for detainees, which led to dayslong protests earlier this year and clashes between law enforcement and protesters that prompted the city’s mayor to enact a temporary curfew.

Lopez-Cornejo “experienced a medical emergency while in ICE custody,” and GEO facility staff and medical staff “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services,” ICE said.

The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination, the agency added.

Lopez-Cornejo was 39, according to his family, although ICE identified him as 41 in its statement.

His daughter, who had been unable to visit her father at Delaney Hall, spoke through tears at a news conference Tuesday.

“I’m going to grow up without a father. They didn’t even let him see me one last time before he died,” the girl said.

“No one here is illegal,” she added. “Everyone here should feel welcomed, not seen as criminals.”

Lopez-Cornejo’s death comes after the December 2025 death of Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old migrant who died within a day of entering Delaney Hall. Brutus died of suspected natural causes after suffering a medical emergency, ICE said.

The two men are among the more than 50 ICE detainees who have died since President Donald Trump returned to office last year and began pushing for mass deportations. More detainees died in custody in 2025 than in any year in at least two decades, and 2026 is on track to be even higher, CNN has reported.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo, demanded justice for her son, granddaughter and “everyone else who has been hunted down like criminals by ICE,” speaking in Spanish through a translator.

The family demanded an independent investigation into Lopez-Cornejo’s death, along with the release of all medical records related to his case. They also called for the closure of Delaney Hall, along with the release of all detainees, especially the medically vulnerable, and called on New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill specifically to open an investigation into what they described as a health crisis at the detention center.

Sherrill said Monday she was “deeply disturbed” to hear of Lopez-Cornejo’s death.

“My heart is with the individual’s loved ones, who deserve answers about what happened,” she wrote in a statement, adding her administration is “working with our Congressional delegation to gather all the facts surrounding this death.”

Rep. Analilia Mejia, a New Jersey Democrat, described witnessing “medical abuse” during her visits to Delaney Hall and Elizabeth Detention Center, another ICE facility in New Jersey.

“I have spoken to people who are being either denied medication, timely healthcare or when they’re given their medication, it is a fraction of what they’re supposed to get. I’ve seen this and verified it with my own eyes,” Mejia said at the news conference Tuesday.

“In less than a year, yet another family is forced to endure the unimaginable loss of a loved one while in custody at Delaney Hall,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement.

Baraka, who had earlier called for an investigation into Delaney Hall, denounced the latest death as “a heartbreaking reminder of the consequences of a facility that has operated for far too long without adequate oversight, accountability, or transparency.”

Border Patrol arrested Lopez-Cornejo for illegally entering the US in 2006 and deported him later that year to El Salvador, ICE said. He re-entered the US on an unknown date, and ICE arrested him June 18 in Plainfield, New Jersey. He was then detained at Delaney Hall pending removal from the United States, ICE said.

“While in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” ICE said. His family and the consulate of El Salvador in Elizabeth, New Jersey, were notified of his death, according to the agency.

“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” the statement said. “Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout their stay… At no time during detention is a detained noncitizen denied emergency care.”

Lopez-Cornejo took medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and seizures, his mother told Radio Jornalera NJ, an independent Spanish-language media outlet founded by an immigrant rights group.

“My son called me on Friday and said he felt ill. He said part of his face and his right hand had gone numb. He had seen a medical provider that day and said they were going to run some tests, but he did not tell me when,” she told the outlet. She said she was later notified by the hospital that her son was already dead when he arrived.

“I do not know how to heal this pain … I do not know how they treated him inside, but unfortunately my son died,” she said, describing her son as a hardworking, good father who came to the US for work.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) expressed its condolences for the loss and demanded “accountability from ICE, the immediate closure of Delaney Hall, and an end to immigration detention once and for all,” the organization said in a statement.

Facility at the center of protests

Tensions at the facility boiled over in May as hundreds of detainees went on a labor and hunger strike, lawyers for several detainees told CNN, prompting calls from elected officials to investigate the facility.

Clashes were seen between protesters and armed, masked ICE agents during the dayslong protests. Some agents used gas canisters and batons, video from Freedom News TV obtained by CNN shows.

In June, New Jersey’s health commissioner, represented by the state attorney general’s office, filed a lawsuit against the site’s operator, The GEO Group, asking a judge to order the company to grant state inspectors full access to the facility over longstanding allegations of inhumane conditions. The Department of Homeland Security called New Jersey’s lawsuit “frivolous” in a statement, saying “Delaney Hall complies with all required state and local laws.”

In her statement Monday, Sherrill said her administration continues “to face obstruction in our efforts to conduct a full health inspection of the facility. Every effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide.”

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied elected officials’ claims of unacceptable conditions at Delaney Hall, saying they were “spreading categorically false smears about ICE’s Delaney Hall facility.”

Rep. Rob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said in a video statement Monday he had visited Delaney Hall after Lopez-Cornejo’s death. He posed medical questions to ICE authorities, but was not given answers, he said.

Menendez also criticized ICE in June for ending its policy of reporting deaths of recently released detainees – a change that came amid increasing scrutiny over the deaths of immigrants in federal custody.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Maria Santana, Priscilla Alvarez, Jessica Jordon, Gloria Pazmino, Sarah Dewberry and Diego Mendoza contributed to this report.