Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, a 41-year-old Salvadoran man, died on Saturday at University Hospital in Newark after suffering a medical emergency at the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in New Jersey, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed on Monday. His death is the second at the same facility in less than a year, and according to official data marks the 23rd death in ICE custody so far in 2025 — part of a sharply rising toll that has reached at least 56 since the start of President Donald Trump's current administration, compared with 11 deaths in all of 2024 and just seven in 2023.

Lopez-Cornejo had lived in the United States for roughly 20 years. His mother, María Cornejo, said he was detained on 18 June while on his way to work in Plainfield, New Jersey, and that he had tried to show arresting officers a valid work permit. ICE records indicate he had originally entered the country without authorisation in 2006, was deported, and later returned. He was held at Delaney Hall under an order reviving his earlier deportation case. His family says he suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure and seizures, and that access to his medication while in detention was uncertain. His mother told reporters she had spoken with him by phone on Friday, the day before he died; he told her he was not feeling well and had lost feeling in his face and hand. He is survived by a 12-year-old daughter.