El Salvador immigrant dies in ICE custody, cases rise to 56 under Trump

With this additional case, the number of immigrant deaths in the agency's custody reaches 23 this year alone, official and public data show. In total, since the beginning of Donald Trump's government, there have been 56 deaths. These are numbers much higher than those from previous years: 2024 (11), 2023 (7), 2022 (3) and 2021 (5).

The cause of Edwin's death has not yet been determined. In a statement, ICE said he had a medical emergency and was taken to the hospital. He was at Delaney Hall, the largest immigration detention center on the East Coast of the USA, which has been the target of protests and complaints about poor sanitary conditions inside. The place has space for 1,000 inmates.

Edwin's mother, María, gave a statement to the labor portal New Labor after her son's death and said that he had been detained since June 18, when he was apprehended on his way to work, in Plainfied, and that he had lived in the USA for 20 years. "Even if this doesn't give me my son back, I don't want others to go through what I'm going through," he said, in tears.

According to the family, Edwin had diabetes and needed continuous medication for treatment - the access he had to medication in the detention center was uncertain. He had not yet received permission to receive visitors. Edwin leaves behind a 12-year-old daughter.

ICE said Edwin was detained in 2006 while trying to enter the United States illegally and deported two months later, and then re-entered the country on an unknown date.

"In less than a year, another family is forced to experience the unimaginable loss of a loved one who was in custody at Delaney Hall," Newark Mayor Ras Baraka told reporters. Delaney Hall prison is located in the city, which is located in the New York metropolitan region and is a bastion of immigrant communities, including Brazilians.

Last December, an immigrant from Haiti, Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, also died at Delaney Hall. He had just been transferred to the location and, according to a nurse, was found hyperventilating. He was transported to Newark University Hospital and died there.

"This tragedy is yet another painful reminder of why Delaney Hall must be closed," New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill wrote in a statement. "We continue to experience obstructions in our efforts to conduct a thorough health inspection of the facility."

Sherrill and Mayor Baraka have been urging ICE to allow local delegations access to Delaney Hall to supervise the facility after hundreds of detainees published a letter denouncing unsanitary conditions there. So far, they have not received authorization.

In one of the demonstrations against the center, held around the facility, the mayor was detained by ICE, accused of invading private property. Delaney Hall is managed by the company GEO Group, which also runs other immigrant prisons under a contract with ICE.

"That's why we are fighting to close Delaney Hall, and why we will continue to use every tool available to prevent new private detention facilities from opening their doors," said the governor of New Jersey.

The numbers of immigrants detained in ICE custody have been record highs during this second Trump administration. Last June alone, a historic record, there were more than 46,000 arrests in custody, around 1,500 arrests per day, according to the CBS network.