Edwin López Cornejo, a Salvadoran immigrant who had been in the United States for twenty years, died last Saturday after more than a month in an ICE detention center, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, in the state of New Jersey, as confirmed by his mother.
María Cornejo, mother of the Latina victim, stated in an interview that the last time she spoke with her son, on Friday, she explained that she was feeling unwell.
“He told me that part of his face and right hand had fallen asleep,” the mother stated in the video published on the Facebook portal of New Jersey Harvesta portal that works to protect immigrants.
López Cornejo was transferred from Delaney Hall, the center where he was admitted, to a nearby hospital, which was the one who notified the mother, because, he said, her phone number was registered in her son’s medical file.
The victim, his mother explained, was taking medicine for diabetes and for tension and seizures. However, Cornejo believes that the center was not following through with the treatment.
For this reason, he accused the facility of having committed “negligence” that would have caused the death of his son.
From the hospital they explained to her that her son “had arrived lifeless” and that “his heart had already stopped.”
“That’s why I say that (his death) was in the detention center, because when they took him to the hospital his heart was no longer beating.”
According to reports, to date, neither has López Cornejo’s lawyer received any information from the detention center.
López Cornejo arrived in the United States twenty years ago, lived in two places in the country and had a daughter.
“He was a good father,” his mother said through tears.
According to his testimony, he was arrested on June 18 while on his way to work: “These guys (ICE agents) are grabbing working people.”
So far this year, more than 20 deaths of people in ICE custody have been recorded. Last month, the federal agency changed its internal regulations so that it does not have to report the deaths of people who have recently been released from its custody.
