An immigrant being held at a New Jersey ICE detention center died on 1 August, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday. Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, is the 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year, according to agency data.
Lopez-Cornejo, who is originally from El Salvador and first came to the US in 2006, was arrested by ICE agents in Plainfield, New Jersey, on 18 June and sent to Delaney Hall detention facility to await deportation. Less than two months later he suffered an unspecified “medical emergency”, and was later pronounced dead by University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, ICE said.
Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo told the New Jersey Monitor newspaper that her son had held a job since 2022 and tried to show the arresting officers his work permit, but he was detained anyway. Though she says she spoke to her son daily, she was unable to visit him because she is not a US citizen.
“I never got to see him. He didn’t get to see his daughter for six weeks,” she told the Monitor. “When we told her what happened, she let out a big scream and hasn’t been the same since. She can’t sleep or eat. Neither can I.