FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) mourns the loss of Edwin Jovanny Lopez-Cornejo, 41, who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on August 1. Lopez-Cornejo was detained at the Delaney Hall immigrant prison in Newark, New Jersey.
Lopez-Cornejo’s death marks the 54th known in-custody ICE death recorded since Trump was inaugurated, with Fiscal Year 2026 being the deadliest year on record. This grim tally does not account for the unknown number of community members who have died at the hands of federal immigration agents outside of custody in recent weeks, including those who have died shortly after their release from detention where they were denied critical medical treatment, like Priciliano Trejo; those who have been killed by federal agents in the streets, like Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero; and those who have been killed or injured fleeing ICE’s horrific abduction operations, like Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán.
News reports suggest ICE arrested 51,000 people in July, a record-high number of arrests in a month. Meanwhile, the number of people detained in secretive detention camps and immigrant prisons across the country climbed to roughly 68,000.
Laura Hernández, executive director of Freedom for Immigrants (FFI), issued the following statement.
“Edwin should be alive, and free, today. We grieve alongside his friends and family, and with the countless other families whose loved ones have cruelly and prematurely perished at the hands of the U.S. government.
“Over the past year, calls to the National Immigration Detention Hotline have spiked alongside ICE’s detention expansion. People calling into the hotline continue to courageously report horrific medical neglect and unlivable conditions. These factors — including the denial of critical medical care and medications, malnourishment from insufficient or inedible food and undrinkable water, and punitive use of solitary confinement, a practice amounting to psychological torture, among other routine harms — are directly contributing to the steady rise in deaths at overcrowded and remote detention camps that were already stained with a grisly track-record of human rights violations.
“These avoidable tragedies underscore what we’ve known to be true for many years: Nobody is safe for any amount of time in ICE custody because immigration detention has always been abusive and deadly by design. Premature death is a hallmark of the racist, profit-driven immigration detention system and a long-standing example of how U.S. immigration policy systematically devalues Black and brown lives.
“Enough is enough! ICE’s deliberate callousness puts our loved ones at risk. We demand immediate releases of everyone detained by ICE, the permanent closure of detention camps, and an end to the abductions, family separation, and deportations carried out by these murderous immigration enforcement agencies.”
###
Freedom for Immigrants is an abolitionist organization working to end immigration incarceration by organizing with and following the leadership of currently and formerly incarcerated immigrants. We’re building a future in which all people can move freely and thrive. Learn more at www.freedomforimmigrants.org/.