Robert Menendez

A detainee at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark, has died, 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.

In a video posted on X, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) said he was conducting “unannounced oversight” at Delaney Hall following reports of the death.

“We’re gonna go inside and get answers right now and once we’re done, we’ll report back,” Menendez said in the 13 second video, which was filmed from inside a car.

The elected officials did not identify the deceased person.

In a video interview conducted in Spanish with New Labor, a New Jersey workers’ rights group, Edwin’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.

Cornejo 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 sad. “”I never had any complaints. He was an excellent son."

Cornejo said her son was on the way to work on June 18th 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,” Cornejo said in the New Labor interview.

Lopez Cornejo’s immigrations status was unclear as of Monday afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon. Lopez Cornejo’s lawyer, Ingrid Echeverria, also did not respond to a request for comment.

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.

Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) was appalled by the reports that the detainee died due to 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. Inmates and lawyers file them to seek to have the person’s continued detainment justified.

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 were scheduled to hold a vigil outside the facility at 7:30 p.m.

The death comes months after Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, died on Dec. 12 while in ICE custody at Delaney Hall. It was still unclear how he died.