New Jersey's attorney general is opening a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark, after a third detainee died in custody within months.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport issued investigative subpoenas Friday against the 1,000-bed facility, which is run by private prison company GEO Group and was the first federal detention center to open under President Donald Trump's second term. The probe will examine whether staff violated detainees' civil rights amid mounting reports of squalid conditions, including spoiled food, denied hygiene products, and blocked health inspections, Politico reported.
The latest death involved a detainee who reportedly suffered a seizure during intake and was released from ICE custody on the spot before dying at a hospital — a technicality that, according to Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), allowed ICE to avoid formally reporting it as an in-custody death.
A separate detainee, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, died after his family says he lost 30 pounds over six weeks at the facility and wasn't receiving medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and epilepsy, all while sharing a crowded cell with roughly 10 other detainees and one toilet.
Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill has publicly called for Delaney Hall to be shut down entirely, saying state health inspectors were denied full access to the site. Protests and hunger strikes have plagued the facility for months, sparking clashes between demonstrators and officers and even leading to the arrest of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ).
The Department of Homeland Security has flatly rejected the allegations, insisting detainees receive proper meals, medical care and hygiene supplies.
"There is NO hunger strike at Delaney Hall," DHS said in a statement.
An earlier DHS-commissioned inspection found the facility met 17 of 22 federal detention standards, though it's unclear whether that review addressed the specific medical and sanitation complaints now central to Davenport's investigation.