A detainee at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark, has died, the Department of Homeland Security and elected officials said Monday.
U.S. Senator Andy Kim's office received confirmation from the ICE Newark Field Office that a detainee had passed away, a spokesperson from his office told NJ.com Monday.
A source from New Jersey's congressional delegation confirmed the detainee's name is Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo.
U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) said he visited Delaney Hall on Monday to learn what he could about Cornejo's death, and about a death involving another Delaney Hall detainee roughly two weeks earlier.
He said the earlier death was not reported by ICE, after the immigration agency's Newark regional office had granted a medical release to the person, making him the hospital's responsibility.
Menendez said Cornejo died Saturday, Aug. 1, after suffering what officials believed to have been cardiac arrest. He added that Cornejo had complained of fatigue that afternoon, prompting the facility to call for an ambulance.
EMS was called sometime after 1 p.m., remained at Delaney Hall for about 30 minutes, and the detainee was transported to University Hospital in Newark, he said. EMS arrived at the hospital at about 2:40 p.m., before the detainee was pronounced dead at 3:24 p.m. ICE headquarters and the Salvadoran consulate were notified.
Menendez said Cornejo received medical attention at Delaney Hall from nurse practitioners, because the only physician at the facility was not on call Saturday.
Cornejo was a 39-year-old man from El Salvador who had been in the United States for about 20 years, Menendez said, adding that Cornejo's mother said her son had diabetes and epilepsy.
In a video interview conducted in Spanish with New Labor, a New Jersey workers' rights group, Cornejo's mother, María Cornejo said her son "died at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center."
Throughout the 18-minute interview, she tearfully decried the loss of her son.
"I don't have a way of healing this deep pain, this pain is too profound," she said while crying.
She described her son as a hard-working man who had been in the country for about 20 years and was a devoted father to a 12-year-old girl.
"My son was a person who didn't have any vices," she said. "I never had any complaints. He was an excellent son."
She said her son was on the way to work on June 18 when he was detained by federal immigration agents. When she finally got a chance to speak to him, he said the tightness of the handcuffs during his arrest caused bruising.
"I asked if they had mistreated him and he told me they'd put the handcuffs on him very tight and that his hands had become purple," she said in the New Labor interview.
In a statement on Monday evening, the Department of Homeland Security said Cornejo died of a medical emergency on Saturday.
The agency said GEO Group workers and medical staff responded to the medical emergency, called 911 and that Cornejo was then transported to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The agency said Cornejo entered the U.S. illegally on Aug. 13, 2006, and was deported back to El Salvador by Oct. 19 of the same year. He later reentered the country illegally at an unknown date and was arrested by ICE agents in Plainfield on June 18, 2026, the agency said.
Lopez Cornejo's lawyer, Ingrid Echeverria, did not respond to a request for comment.
Menendez said the two deaths underscore longstanding concerns about conditions at Delaney Hall. He has consistently called for the facility to be closed because of concerns that serious incidents would occur.
He said the earlier death occurred during the week of July 20, shortly before he was contacted by someone connected with the hospital and by family. That person, whose name and country of origin he did not know, began to experience what ICE and GEO medical personnel believed was a seizure. University Hospital EMS were also summoned at that time, and took the person to the hospital.
In that case, Menendez said, ICE's Newark field office authorized the temporary release of the detainee to facilitate medical treatment, meaning the person was no longer technically in ICE custody when he died. Menendez said ICE therefore did not treat the death as its responsibility to report.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill said she was "deeply disturbed" by the news of Cornejo's death and that her administration was still working to gather the facts. The governor said her administration continues to deal with obstruction while trying to conduct oversight into the privately owned facility.
"This tragedy is another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall should be closed," the governor said in a statement on Monday.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka also released a statement, offering condolences to Lopez Cornejo's family and speaking out against the facility's alleged conduct.
"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," Baraka said. "The death of Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo is a heartbreaking reminder of the consequences of a facility that has operated for far too long without adequate oversight, accountability or transparency."
Kathy O'Leary, a lead organizer at Eyes On ICE, said Lopez Cornejo had gone without necessary medication since his arrest on June 18.
"Every single person who goes into that facility gets denied their medication for a period of time," O'Leary said.
However, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday night that he received proper medical care while in custody and was seen by medical professionals.
Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) was appalled by reports that the detainee died after not receiving medication.
"Edwin had lived in the United States since he was a child," Coleman said in a statement. "By all accounts, he was an upstanding member of his community. His detention alone was an act of cruelty, and if he indeed was denied his medication as his family reports, the operators at Delaney Hall should be charged with homicide."
Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (NJ-10) also issued a statement, reacting to the death.
"I know about Delaney Hall and I know that cruelty is at its core," McIver said. "Even after the deaths, violence, abuse, and mistreatment of those inside, Republican leaders, even in our own state, deny the truth and refuse to act. Anyone who doesn't see these heinous acts for what they are is choosing to do so."
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, Amol Sinha, executive director at the ACLU of New Jersey, identified Lopez Cornejo as the deceased and alleged his death was due to the conditions inside the facility.
"We mourn the loss of Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, who reportedly died after not receiving adequate medical care while detained," the statement said. "This tragedy is another devastating result of the rampant inhumane conditions at Delaney Hall and detention centers across the country, including the routine denial of proper medical care, sanitary conditions, and food. The Trump administration's detention and deportation machine continues to terrorize and traumatize communities at an unprecedented level, yet numbers cannot encapsulate the grief and devastation that these abuses cause. We demand accountability from ICE, the immediate closure of Delaney Hall, and an end to immigration detention once and for all."
Lopez Cornejo filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal court in Newark on July 24, records show. Petitions are standard in immigration cases. Detainees and their lawyers file them to challenge the legal basis for continued detention.
The same day, Judge Brian R. Martinotti, issued Lopez Cornejo an emergent immigration non-transfer order, preventing ICE from moving him from New Jersey. It's also a standard ruling that keeps the person in place until the habeas petition is concluded.
Local activists held a vigil outside the facility on Monday night and a little over 100 people gathered as they placed flowers and turned on electric candles near the barbed wire fence.
One person placed a sign at the bottom of the fence that read "Say his name Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo died in ICE/GEO custody Aug. 1, 2026."
The death comes months after Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, died on Dec. 12 while in ICE custody at Delaney Hall. The cause of Brutus' death remained unclear.
Over the last few months there have been protests outside the privately-owned facility following criticism by Democratic elected officials.
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