(The Center Square) — New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is reviewing a push to close the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility after another detainee death was reported over the weekend.
Federal authorities announced Monday that Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a 41-year-old Salvadoran migrant who was in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in the Newark facility, died following a “medical emergency” over the weekend.
It marked the second death of a migrant being held at the 1,000 bed facility, which has been the source of protests and legal challenges over ICE’s aggressive, immigration enforcement tactics.
Sherrill called Lopez-Cornejo’s death a “tragedy” and said it “is another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall should be closed.”
“I have long opposed the use of private, for-profit prisons operating in a space that should be reserved for government,” she said in a statement. “Corporations should not have the right to monetize imprisoning people while avoiding public accountability.
“This is why we are fighting to close Delaney Hall, and why we will continue using every tool available to stop new private detention facilities — like the proposed facility in Roxbury — from opening their doors,” she said.
Sherrill said her administration is meeting with members of the state’s congressional delegation “to gather all the facts surrounding this death” but state officials “continue to face obstruction in our efforts to conduct a full health inspection of the facility.”
“Every effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide,” she said.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined Sherrill in renewing calls for the Delaney Hall facility, which reopened last year as an ICE detention facility, to be shut down.
“In less than a year, yet another family is forced to endure the unimaginable loss of a loved one while in custody at Delaney Hall,” Baraka said in a statement.
Delaney Hall has become the latest flashpoint in opposition to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration since a group of detainees allegedly went on a hunger strike to protest conditions inside the facility.
In June, New Jersey filed a lawsuit against the GEO Group, which operates the facility. The legal challenge claims state health inspectors were blocked from entering Delaney Hall to investigate claims of “inhumane” conditions by family members of the detainees.
But Homeland Security rejected allegations that migrants are being mistreated in the facility and said ICE “is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments.”
“Comprehensive medical care is provided from the moment individuals arrive and throughout their stay,” ICE said in a statement. “At no time during detention is a detained noncitizen denied emergency care.”
