Robert Menendez

ICE officials did not report the death of someone who had been detained at Delaney Hall immigration detention center last month because they had technically “released” him in the middle of a medical emergency, a U.S. congressman alleged Monday.

The person, who has not yet been publicly identified, was granted a “discretionary release” from ICE custody and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital — and ICE did not report the death publicly due to a recent policy change, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) said Monday.

Delaney Hall, which is in Newark, New Jersey, has been the subject of protests for months, and detainees there launched a hunger and labor strike in May, demanding freedom and due process in their immigration cases. Among the many issues they raised were allegations of medical neglect.

Advertisement

Menendez conducted an oversight visit of the immigration jail on Monday, in the wake of news that a man detained at Delaney Hall named Edwin Jeovanny Lopez Cornejo had died Saturday following a medical emergency. ICE publicly acknowledged Lopez Cornejo’s death.

But after the site visit, the lawmaker announced that “another death occurred just weeks ago at Delaney Hall,” in addition to Lopez Cornejo’s.

“An individual that had just been brought there suffered what they believe was a seizure,” Menendez said in a video posted to social media. “But you didn’t hear about this because they released him to University Hospital [in Newark], so he was no longer in ICE custody.”

Advertisement

Menendez noted that ICE changed its policy around reporting deaths in custody in June. Under the new policy, people who die shortly after being released are not required to be reported to government regulators, or in the public statements that ICE usually issues following deaths in custody.

The agency’s previous policy, issued in 2021, required reporting “all detainee deaths, including but not limited to those occurring in a detention facility, medical facility, holding room, in transit between facilities, or post release (when a death occurs within a reasonable time, not to exceed 30 days of release from ICE custody and review is requested by the ICE Director.).”

“ICE is not responsible when an individual passes away weeks after leaving their custody,” the Department of Homeland Security said when the change went into effect, defending the move as “common sense.”

Advertisement

The change, Menendez said, “is meant to keep the number of deaths that are being reported in ICE custody to as low of a number as possible.”

Separately, on a call with reporters Monday, Mendez said the medical incident happened as the unidentified man was being processed as a new detainee at Delaney Hall, and that officials decided to release him.

“The nurses who do intake responded, it escalated, 911 was called. EMS arrived about 35, 40 minutes later ― but in this instance, ICE made the determination to provide a discretionary release,” Menendez said, before explaining the recent policy change concerning the reporting of ICE detainee deaths. “That person had lost consciousness, most likely it was a seizure. University Hospital made the determination upon that person’s initial intake that they had experienced a seizure.”

Advertisement

“That person passed shortly after arriving at University Hospital,” he continued. “However, since they were released from ICE custody, University Hospital was responsible for notification ― that incident was not reported to [the Office of Professional Responsibility] or [the Office of Inspector General].”

Menendez said he found out about the death “through a chain of information” that began with University Hospital rather than the Trump administration, and that he did not have biographical information about the deceased person.

“Because the person was out of their custody, they were not forthcoming with additional details,” he said, referring to ICE.

Advertisement

In response to HuffPost’s follow-up questions about the incident, Menendez’s office referred to the press call.

Deaths of people in ICE custody have set an all-time record this fiscal year, which began in October.

DHS did not respond to HuffPost’s questions about the congressman’s remarks.

Edwin Jeovanny Lopez Cornejo

Two people who’d been detained at Delaney Hall have died in about a two-week period, Menendez said.

Lopez Cornejo, a husband and father who’d lived in the United States for decades, had complained of numbness in his face and right hand on Friday, according to interviews his family gave to Radio Jornalera and Radio Cosecha. He had been taking medication for seizures and high blood pressure, but it wasn’t clear if he had been provided that medication while in detention.

Advertisement

Lopez Cornejo’s mother, Maria, said she next heard about her son from officials at University Hospital in Newark, who told her that her son was dead when he arrived at the hospital.

Lopez Cornejo “experienced a medical emergency while in ICE custody” and was taken to the hospital, according to an ICE press release, which said his cause of death “remains pending further medical examination.”

“While in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” the statement said.

Advertisement

Menendez said ICE’s timeline of Lopez Cornejo’s death doesn’t align with his family’s: The immigration enforcement agency had told him the man had arrived at the hospital around 2:40 p.m. and that his official time of death was 3:24 p.m.

“I have often found that ICE’s accounts of many instances are not accurate,” he said. “I am not treating these as the facts or truth, but sharing what was conveyed to me.”

Lopez Cornejo was arrested on June 18 and was being detained at Delaney Hall pending deportation, ICE said, accusing him of illegally entering the United States in 2006, and again at an unknown later date after he was deported that year.

Advertisement

He was originally from El Salvador. He had filed a lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas corpus petition, just days before his death. A federal judge had ordered on July 27 that he not be transferred during the proceedings ― a standard order intended to prevent the Trump administration from shuffling detainees around to different states and interrupting legal processes.

Attestations in the suit asserted that Lopez Cornejo had no criminal history, according to The City Reporter.

Before Menendez’s comments about the undisclosed death of a Delaney Hall detainee last month, Lopez Cornejo’s passing was believed to be the second at Delaney Hall since December, when a Haitian man, Jean Wilson Brutus, died just hours after entering custody at Delaney Hall.