Man detained at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall dies in ICE custody

Aug. 3 (UPI) — A 41-year-old man detained at a private immigration detention facility in New Jersey has died, the Trump administration said Monday, further raising concerns for the safety of migrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and specifically at Delaney Hall Detention Facility.

Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a Salvadoran national, died Saturday at University Hospital in Newark, N.J., where he was taken after experiencing a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, which is privately operated by the GEO Group under a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract.

He is at least the 54th person to die in ICE custody since President Donald Trump’s return to office, according to a UPI count of ICE detainee-death reports.

According to Democratic lawmakers, Lopez-Cornejo, a father of a 12-year-old daughter, had been in the country for more than 20 years. ICE said he originally entered the United States in August 2006 and was removed from the country that October. It was 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 said Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals. The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination, it said.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said in a recorded statement that Lopez-Cornejo died of an apparent heart attack. Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J., said in a recorded statement of his own 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 Saturday afternoon, Menendez said, adding 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.

According to Menendez, Lopez-Cornejo died weeks after another 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,” he said.

According to an ICE do***ent 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 said 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, It 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 Dec. 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.

The 1,000-bed facility 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 “billion-dollar boondoggle that has more to do with cruelty than with public safety.”

He said 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.”