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 41-year-old migrant being held 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 Monday.
The privately owned facility was the focus of dayslong protests earlier this year over accusations of inhumane conditions for detainees inside, with clashes between law enforcement and protesters prompting the city’s mayor to enact a temporary curfew.
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Lopez-Cornejo “experienced a medical emergency while in ICE custody,” and facility staff and medical staff “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services,” ICE said in its statement.
The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination, it added.
Lopez-Cornejo is the second known death at Delaney Hall since it opened last May, after Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old migrant, died within a day of entering the facility in December. 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. As CNN has reported, more died in custody in 2025 than in any year in at least two decades, and 2026 is on track to be even higher.
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New Jersey Gov. Mikie 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 that her administration is “working with our Congressional delegation to gather all the facts surrounding this death.”
“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.”
ICE said that Border Patrol arrested Lopez-Cornejo for illegally entering the US in 2006, deporting him later that year to El Salvador. He illegally entered the US at a later unknown date, and was arrested on June 18 in Plainfield, New Jersey, after which he was detained at Delaney Hall pending removal from the United States, ICE said.
In its statement, ICE said that “while in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals.” His family and the consulate of El Salvador in Elizabeth, New Jersey, were notified of his death, ICE said.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” ICE’s 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.”
Speaking to Radio Jornalera NJ, an independent Spanish language media outlet, Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, María, said her son took medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures.
“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,” María Cornejo told the outlet. She said she was later notified by the hospital that her son was already deceased 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,” its statement said.
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, with calls from elected officials to investigate the facility.
During the dayslong protests, clashes were seen between protesters and armed, masked ICE agents, including some who used gas canisters and batons, video from Freedom News TV obtained by CNN shows.
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In June, the New Jersey attorney general filed a lawsuit against the site’s operator, The GEO Group, urging a court to close the facility until the state could inspect it 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 smears about ICE law enforcement” and the facility.
In a video statement Monday, Rep. Rob Menendez said he had visited Delaney Hall after the death of Lopez-Cornejo. He posted 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.
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