Aug. 4, 2026, 3:23 PM EDT
By Nicole Acevedo
The family of a 41-year-old Salvadoran man who died Saturday at an immigration detention center in New Jersey is claiming that medical negligence is to blame for his death
“It isn’t fair that he died this way,” Maria Cornejo, the mother of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, said at a news conference held Tuesday by family members
Lopez-Cornejo, who was the father of a 12-year-old U.S.-citizen daughter, suffered from several underlying health conditions, including epilepsy, high blood pressure and diabetes, according to his family
He was dependent on several medications to keep his conditions under control, the family said. Citing conversations they had with Lopez-Cornejo from detention before he died, the family said that staff at Delaney Hall, the immigration detention center in Newark where Lopez-Cornejo was being held, failed to adequately administer his medications and his condition
“He was treated horribly,” Ashley Lopez, Lopez-Cornejo’s daughter, said amid tears during the news conference. “I’m going to grow up without a father — we had so many plans.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and another for GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall, referred NBC News to ICE’s previous statementwhen asked Tuesday about the allegations made by Lopez-Cornejo’s family about medical negligence
“While in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals,” the statement reads
ICE officers arrested Lopez-Cornejo on June 18 in Plainfield, New Jersey, while he was on his way to work
ICE notified the public of Lopez-Cornejo’s death on Monday, as required per the agency’s policy. In its statement, ICE said Lopez-Cornejo suffered “a medical emergency while in ICE custody.”
ICE said personnel from GEO Group “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services.” Lopez-Cornejo was pronounced deceased on Saturday by medical personnel at University Hospital in Newark
Maria Cornejo said she last spoke with Lopez-Cornejo on Friday when he complained to her about feeling unwell, saying that part of his face and his right hand had gone numb. She said Lopez-Cornejo told her he had seen a doctor at the facility earlier that day, but was going to have some additional tests done later at an unknown time
She then received a call from the hospital Saturday notifying her of her son’s death. She opened up about that moment in a Facebook livestream Monday night with the advocacy group Movimiento Cosecha
She was told that her son “arrived lifeless” at the hospital. “His heart had already stopped,” Cornejo said in Spanish, adding she later went to the hospital to identify his body
In the same livestream, Danilo Lopez, Lopez-Cornejo’s brother, deemed his immigration detention as “unnecessary” considering his serious underlying medical conditions
ICE reported 33 detainee deaths in 2025, the highest total in more than two decades, according to the National Immigration Project, a legal nonprofit
Lopez-Cornejo had been living in the U.S. for nearly two decades. His brother said Lopez-Cornejo had a valid work permit
According to ICE, Lopez-Cornejo was not authorized to be in the country after he “illegally re-entered the U.S.” at an unknown time following his removal to El Salvador on Oct. 19, 2006
After his ICE arrest last month, Lopez-Cornejo was taken to Delaney Hall “pending removal from the United States pursuant to a reinstatement of his prior removal order.”
Lopez-Cornejo’s family ended the news conference asking for transparency, accountability and an independent investigation into the conditions and events around Lopez-Cornejo’s death
