A man from El Salvador has died at a that has been the target of over living conditions for people detained there, federal officials said Monday.
Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, had been held at Delaney Hall in Newark after being arrested June 18, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lopez-Cornejo, whom the government accused of entering the U.S. illegally, died Saturday, the agency said. His official cause of death will be released following further medical examination, according to ICE.
Democratic politicians and civil rights groups in New Jersey questioned whether his death was preventable, saying they had little confidence people detained at the 1,000-bed facility were receiving proper care.
鈥淭his is not the first death of a detainee at Delaney Hall, and absent decisive action, it will not be the last,鈥� Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said in a statement. 鈥淚 have visited the facility myself and witnessed these conditions firsthand, so I say this plainly: Delaney Hall must be closed immediately and permanently.鈥�
ICE said Lopez-Cornejo 鈥渞eceived proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals鈥� while he was in custody.
People held at the Newark facility have asked for improved living conditions and better medical care, as they say some are being denied medication. Earlier this year, some launched a hunger strike, according to Cosecha, an immigrant advocacy group.
The facility has also been a against President Donald Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown, with demonstrators trying to block vehicles from entering or leaving the facility.
Trump and his deputies have defended the center鈥檚 operations and denied there is any hunger strike, abuse or poor conditions inside.
The facility is owned by Geo Group, that runs multiple detention centers . The contractor did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
In December, another 41-year-old man, Jean Wilson Brutus, a Haitian national, died after collapsing at Delaney Hall in what a medical examiner ruled was a natural death due to a lung blockage.
U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has routinely visited Delaney Hall, told reporters Monday that he confirmed that another person detained by ICE died in July after they suffered a seizure while they were being processed at the facility. Menendez said ICE granted the individual a 鈥渄iscretionary release鈥� from custody after they were taken to a hospital and lost consciousness, and the person died shortly afterward.
Menendez did not identify the individual, and ICE didn鈥檛 immediately respond to an inquiry about the case.
Menendez said that ICE did not report the death, in line with a policy change announced earlier this year in which the agency no longer reports deaths that occur within 30 days of someone’s release from custody. ICE described the change as 鈥渃ommon sense鈥� at the time, saying it is not responsible for what happens after people leave its custody. Some health experts and advocates for immigrants warned that the move would help ICE keep its custody death statistics down while obscuring its role in some deaths.
ICE has also not publicly recognized the July 24 death of 29-year-old Priciliano Trejo in Georgia, which came nine days after ICE released him from custody while he was hospitalized in a coma, according to a coalition of advocacy groups in the state.
Trejo, a Mexican national, had been diagnosed with leukemia, advocates said. Before his hospitalization, he had been arrested by ICE in North Carolina and later detained at Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, where at least two other ICE detainees have died in the last 14 months. ICE has not responded to an inquiry about Trejo鈥檚 death.
In all, at least 56 people have died in ICE custody during Trump鈥檚 second term. Lopez-Cornejo is the second native of El Salvador, following the September death of Norlan Guzman-Fuentes, who was killed during a on an ICE field office in Dallas.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, said her administration is working to understand the facts surrounding Lopez-Cornejo’s death.
鈥淎t the same time, we continue to face obstruction in our efforts to conduct a full health inspection of the facility,鈥� she said in a statement. 鈥淓very effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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