Second ICE Detainee Dies at New Jersey Facility

A New Jersey immigrant detention center is again under scrutiny after a second detainee died following a medical emergency there, reports Gothamist. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says 41-year-old Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, a Salvadoran national who'd lived in New Jersey for about two decades, collapsed Saturday at Newark's Delaney Hall facility, was taken to University Hospital, and pronounced dead less than an hour later. ICE says the cause of death is still under investigation and that he received appropriate medical care, including his prescribed medications.

His mother disputes that. In an interview with advocacy group Movimiento Cosecha, Maria Cornejo said that her son, who had diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures, told her he felt ill and numb the day before and that she believes he was not given necessary medication during his six-plus weeks in custody. She says the hospital, not ICE, notified her of his death. ICE says Lopez Cornejo, who was detained in June, illegally entered the US around 2006. The New York Times notes that he is the second person to die while being held at Delaney Hall since it reopened in 2025. Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, died in December after a medical emergency.