Guatemalan Man Dies After Medical Emergency at Delaney Hall and Release From ICE Custody

Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man, was taken into ICE custody at the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark on July 18, 2026. A nurse found him experiencing seizure-like activity the next day, and he was taken to a hospital. ICE released him from custody on July 22, and he died weeks later. The Department of Homeland Security said ICE was not responsible because the death came “weeks after leaving their custody” — the same reasoning that keeps deaths like his out of the agency’s official count. It is at least the third death connected to Delaney Hall under the current administration, after Edwin Lopez-Cornejo of El Salvador and Jean Wilson Brutus of Haiti. Rep. Rob Menendez said he was given conflicting information about the case following an August 3 oversight visit to the facility.