Days earlier than a Salvadoran nationwide detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in New Jersey died, his lawyer requested a federal decide to stop his switch to a different facility and to presumably order his launch, citing partly medical issues, a court docket submitting reveals.
Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, 39, who was detained on the Delaney Corridor facility in Newark, died on Saturday following a “medical emergency,” ICE mentioned.
A protester ties a ribbon with the identify of detainees on a fence exterior of Delaney Corridor detention middle, after a Salvadoran immigrant, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, who was being held inside died on Saturday, in Newark, New Jersey, August 3, 2026.
Ryan Murphy/Reuters
In a habeas petition filed on his behalf on July 24, lawyer Ingrid Echeverria requested a decide to order the Division of Homeland Safety to offer details about why Lopez-Cornejo was detained and to additionally forestall his switch to a different facility.
“If not, he no less than asks that Respondents be required to provide advance written discover earlier than any switch, determine the receiving facility, and be sure that his drugs accompany him and are administered with out interruption,” the petition said.
Echeverria outlined within the habeas petition a number of drugs Lopez-Cornejo was taking on the time of his dying that required a strict routine, together with ones to deal with epilepsy, hypertension and different situations. The submitting doesn’t point out any issues that Lopez-Cornejo was not receiving his remedy.
Since his dying, members of the family have alleged medical neglect and have questioned if he was receiving correct care at Delaney Corridor, noting that he complained of numbness on his face and arm the day earlier than he died.
Within the discover to lawmakers, ICE mentioned Lopez-Cornejo acquired correct medical care and that employees at Delaney Corridor “responded instantly” and referred to as 911 throughout his medical emergency on Saturday. He was transported to a hospital, the place ICE mentioned he was pronounced useless.
The official explanation for dying stays pending additional medical examination, ICE mentioned. Homeland Safety Secretary Markwayne Mullin mentioned in an interview Tuesday with NewsNation that Lopez-Cornejo died of cardiac arrest.
Maria Cornejo, second proper, mom of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, reacts throughout a information convention in Highland Park, New Jersey, Aug. 4, 2026.
Yuki Iwamura/AP Photograph
Echeverría instructed ABC Information she has a number of questions on his situation earlier than his dying.
“What we need to know is what occurred? When did he begin feeling in poor health?” Echeverría mentioned. “Ought to they’ve referred to as the ambulance sooner?”
Lopez-Cornejo was taken into custody on June 18 in Plainfield, New Jersey, and had been detained at Delaney Corridor “pending removing from america pursuant to a reinstatement of his prior removing order,” ICE mentioned in an announcement.
ICE mentioned Lopez-Cornejo illegally entered the nation in August 2006 and was deported again to El Salvador a few months later.
In keeping with the habeas petition, he re-entered america in 2007 and later utilized for asylum. Reveals filed along with his petition present he had a piece allow that expired in 2025 and that he had a pending request for renewal as of June 2025.
A number of buddies and employers wrote to the decide asking for his launch, information present, with one former employer describing Lopez-Cornejo as a tough employee.
“It was his good nature, altogether, that outlined him as not only a good worker, however individual, he was at all times sort, smiling, nicely mannered, and at all times in temper,” the previous employer mentioned in a letter of help written precisely one month earlier than Lopez-Cornejo died.
