ICE Found a Loophole to Avoid Reporting a Third Death at a New Jersey Detention Center

A man walks into Delaney Hall, the largest immigration detention facility in New Jersey, and starts seizing during intake. So what does ICE do? They slap a “discretionary release” label on him, ship him to the hospital, and when he dies there, they wash their hands and say, “Not our problem. Wasn’t in custody.”

I have questions for the manager.

Rep. Rob Menendez found out about this third death not because ICE followed the law and notified Congress, which they are required to do when someone dies in their custody. He found out during an unannounced oversight visit, two weeks after it happened. Two weeks. They sat on a dead man’s name for fourteen days and might have sat on it forever if nobody showed up uninvited.

And ICE’s defense? A semantic trick. The man had a seizure the moment he arrived, so they “released” him on the spot and shipped him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Therefore, technically, in their particular way of thinking, the death didn’t happen in custody. Menendez put it plainly: once ICE grants that discretionary release, “they’re no longer responsible for even reporting the death.” You don’t have to be a lawyer to see what’s going on here. You just have to have eyes.

This comes on the heels of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, who died Saturday at the same facility. His mother, Maria Cornejo, said in a video that her son called the day before he died and told her part of his face and his right hand had gone numb. He had diabetes, high blood pressure, and a seizure disorder. She wanted to know whether he was getting his medication. Nobody gave her an answer in time. He leaves behind a daughter.

Magda Ehlers / Pexels

Now here’s the line that ought to make you spit your coffee. An ICE spokesperson said, and I am not making this up, “This is the best healthcare than many aliens have received in their lives.” A man’s face went numb and he died the next day. Two more ambulances pulled up to Delaney Hall on Thursday afternoon while news cameras were still rolling. And ICE wants a medal.

All nine New Jersey congressional Democrats fired off a letter to DHS demanding an accounting of the three deaths. Sen. Cory Booker took the Senate floor and called for Delaney Hall to be shut down within 90 days. “They’re out of excuses,” he said. “We are out of time. How many more people should die?” Gov. Mikie Sherrill called it “another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall should be closed.”

Lopez-Cornejo is the 56th person to die in ICE custody since Trump started his second term. Fifty-six. The facility is run by the GEO Group, a private prison company that referred all questions back to ICE. A Scripps News investigation has already documented delayed medical care, unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, and inadequate food at Delaney Hall. But sure, let’s keep calling it the best healthcare anyone’s ever had.

Here’s what I know. When a government agency has to invent a paperwork trick to avoid telling you someone died on their watch, that agency has forfeited the benefit of the doubt. When a man seizes during intake and the response is to “release” him so his death doesn’t count, that’s not a policy. That’s a cover-up with a filing system.

Three people are dead. ICE didn’t want you to know about the third one. The only reason you do is because a congressman showed up without calling ahead.

Ask yourself: what didn’t they find?