- Two recent deaths connected to Delaney Hall renewed scrutiny of emergency care at the Newark detention center.
- A lawmaker said the facility’s only doctor was not present or on call during Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo’s medical emergency.
- Lawmakers seek closure or stronger oversight, while a proposed bill would require timely emergency-contact notifications.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew questioned reports of dangerous conditions at an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, during a July 2026 hearing. Deaths connected to the facility followed.
Van Drew, chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, and witnesses at the hearing characterized claims of medical neglect, poor food, unsanitary conditions and abuse as exaggerated or fabricated. He said detainees received “24-hour emergency care whenever and wherever it’s needed.”
Within roughly two weeks, two more people connected to the center died. Their cases renewed scrutiny of the emergency response.
Other lawmakers have called for the facility’s closure and additional oversight. The deaths have also sharpened questions about staffing and how officials account for people who leave detention for hospital care.
Two recent deaths raised questions about emergency response
Edwin Jovanny Lopez Cornejo, 39, had lived in Plainfield, New Jersey, for more than 20 years. After a medical emergency, he was taken to University Hospital and pronounced dead on August 1, 2026.
Rep. Rob Menendez said the facility’s only physician was neither present nor on call during the emergency, leaving nurse practitioners to respond. That account has intensified attention on medical coverage.
Jose Chajon-Raxon suffered a seizure and was transported to a hospital. ICE temporarily released him for medical reasons before he died; because he was no longer detained at the time, his death was not counted as an ICE in-custody death.
Earlier deaths and a July visit sharpened scrutiny
Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian man, died one day after arriving at the facility in December 2025. Prisciliano Trejo, 29, died of acute leukemia after relatives said urgent treatment had been delayed. Other reporting described at least three deaths there since it reopened in 2025.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat who has repeatedly sought access, said conditions had not improved. She described the environment as “deспietful and chaotic.”
After a July 31 visit, Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, and Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins Latimer reported that 893 people were held there. They said the staff included one doctor and six nurse practitioners, and that GEO Group, not ICE personnel, directly oversaw the detained population.
Lawmakers seek closure, oversight and family notifications
Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Gov. Mikie Sherrill and other New Jersey lawmakers have joined calls for closure or additional oversight. A proposed Families Deserve to Know Act would require a timely emergency-contact system for people placed in ICE detention.
The proposal addresses how quickly a detained person’s emergency contacts would be notified. It does not resolve the separate questions raised about care inside the Newark center.
ICE custody deaths have risen beyond the Newark facility
The ACLU said nearly 60 people had died in ICE detention since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term in 2025. It said the death rate had more than doubled, reaching its highest level in more than a decade.
Those figures and the allegations remain politically contested. They do not establish that facility staff caused any particular death, and they are not judicial findings.
