Relatives of a Salvadoran immigrant who died after being held at a troubled detention center in Newark gathered outside a church on Tuesday pleading for answers about the circumstances that led to the man’s death.
Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 41, was taken from the Delaney Hall detention center to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead on Saturday. His family members appeared before news cameras on Tuesday to demand that state officials investigate Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s death. They also called for the closure of Delaney Hall and for the release of detainees held there.
Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s mother, Maria Cornejo, said in a phone interview on Tuesday morning that she did not understand why he had died and said that federal immigration officials had refused to provide his medical records to the family. Mr. Lopez-Cornejo is survived by a 12-year-old daughter, his mother said.
“The pain that I feel is irreparable,” Ms. Cornejo said. “His daughter is devastated.”
Family members, who stood on the steps of the church, held Ms. Cornejo by the arms as she approached the news cameras and placed their hands on her shoulder while she spoke to reporters and cried. When she was finished, she hugged her granddaughter.
Ms. Cornejo said that her son had been diagnosed with diabetes and epilepsy but that the conditions were managed for years with medication. She said she did not know if detention officials had been giving him his medication since he was arrested while walking to work on June 18 near his home in Plainfield, N.J., where he had a job in construction.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which oversee Delaney Hall, responded immediately to the family’s demands. Geo Group, the private contractor that operates Delaney Hall, did not reply to inquiries about Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s death.
ICE officials had said on Monday that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo experienced a medical emergency at Delaney Hall and that employees “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services.” The cause of his death was not known; Ms. Cornejo said that she was told autopsy results would take months.
While in custody, Mr. Lopez-Cornejo “received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” ICE said on Monday in a statement.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments,” the agency statement said. “At no time during detention is a detained noncitizen denied emergency care.”
Mr. Lopez-Cornejo is the second Delaney Hall detainee to have died in the past eight months. His death renewed criticism of the federal detention center, where protesters have gathered for months to denounce what detainees have described as inhumane living conditions.
At least 53 people have died in immigration detention facilities since President Trump took office last year, according to a New York Times analysis of news releases from the federal government.
“His death was preventable, and his family deserves answers, accountability and justice,” Jorge Torres, the organizing director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said in a statement. “Edwin is one of too many people whose lives have been cut short while in ICE custody or during immigration enforcement operations.”
Protesters gathered at the Delaney Hall gates on Monday evening to denounce Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s death while lawmakers from Washington to New Jersey criticized federal immigration officials for restricting their ability to inspect the detention center, which members of Congress have the authority to inspect.
New Jersey’s attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, had sued the federal government in June to gain full access to Delaney Hall after immigration officials repeatedly blocked state inspectors from housing and medical units.
“You have all these stories that run counter to what the administration has been telling and selling and spinning to the American people,” Representative Rob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said during a phone call with reporters Monday evening. “There is an erosion of support for this administration with respect to their immigration enforcement.”
In December, Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, died after a medical emergency after Delaney Hall, federal officials said at the time. The detention center had been reopened last year to accommodate President Trump’s expanding immigration crackdown.
Border Patrol officials said that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo had entered the United States illegally in 2006. An immigration judge had ordered him removed at that time, and he was deported to El Salvador two months later, according to federal officials. He entered the country illegally again later. He was detained at Delaney Hall pending removal from the United States.
Allison McCann contributed reporting.