Immigrant being held at Delaney Hall dies, marking 22nd death in ICE custody

An immigrant being held at a New Jersey ICE detention center died on 1 August, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, is the 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year, according to agency data.Lopez-Cornejo, who is originally from El Salvador and first came to the US in 2006, was arrested by ICE agents in Plainfield, New Jersey, on 18 June and sent to Delaney Hall detention facility to await deportation. Less than two months later he suffered an unspecified “medical emergency”, and was later pronounced dead by University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, ICE said.Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo told the New Jersey Monitor newspaper that her son had held a job since 2022 and tried to show the arresting officers his work permit, but he was detained anyway. Though she says she spoke to her son daily, she was unable to visit him because she is not a US citizen.“I never got to see him. He didn’t get to see his daughter for six weeks,” she told the Monitor. “When we told her what happened, she let out a big scream and hasn’t been the same since. She can’t sleep or eat. Neither can I.“I never imagined he would die in that place. I’m just destroyed. I have so much hurt in my heart,” Cornejo continued.In recent months Delaney Hall has been under the national microscope and the site of protests following allegations of issues such as physical abuse by guards and spoiled food. In late May these concerns prompted at least 300 detainees to organize a hunger and labor strike. Weeks after its start, women living in a separate unit of the same facility launched their own hunger strike. In addition to improvements to the facility, their demands include calls for ICE to release women under 21, those with medical conditions and mothers.In a statement that followed ICE’s announcement of Lopez-Cornejo’s death, Ras J Baraka, the Newark mayor, called for the closure of the facility and said this most recent loss of life reflects the lack of accountability and oversight that local residents, officials and those detained in Delaney Hall have been calling for.“GEO group and ICE have repeatedly demonstrated a disregard for transparency, public oversight and the laws designed to protect the health, safety and dignity of those in their custody. When accountability is absent, tragedies become all too common,” Baraka said in a statement released on Monday.“We cannot allow these disturbing failures to continue unchecked. We must speak out against these injustices, demand answers and continue to call for the closure of Delaney Hall,” he continued.