What Happened
López Cornejo, a Salvadoran national who had lived in Plainfield, New Jersey, for about 20 years, was arrested by ICE agents on June 18, 2026, while walking to retrieve his car from a towing company. His mother had urged him to take a taxi instead, worried about running into immigration agents, but he ended up on foot because nearby roads were closed.
He had no criminal record, worked as a landscaper and in a warehouse, and had a pending asylum claim filed nearly two decades earlier. He was held at Delaney Hall, a privately run ICE detention facility in Newark, for about six weeks.
López Cornejo had epilepsy, high blood pressure, and diabetes, and depended on regular medication to manage them. His family says Delaney Hall staff failed to properly administer his medication or monitor his condition. On Aug. 1, 2026, he had a medical emergency at the facility and was taken to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead roughly 45 minutes after arrival. His mother said hospital staff, not ICE, were the ones who told her he had died.
