Third person dies at New Jersey immigration detention center

José Chajón-Raxón experienced ‘seizure-like activity’ at Delaney Hall and later died after being hospitalized

A Guatemalan immigrant detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Newark, New Jersey , facility suffered a medical emergency and later died after being hospitalized, according to the Trump administration.

José Chajón-Raxón is the third immigrant to die after being held at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center that reopened in May 2025 amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

A nurse responded when Chajón-Raxón experienced a medical emergency and “witnessed Chajón-Raxón experiencing seizure-like activity”, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Medical personnel were called, and he was transported to a hospital, the DHS said in a statement shared with the Guardian.

ICE agents had arrested Chajón-Raxón before bringing him to Delaney Hall on 18 July, the agency said. Four days later, Chajón-Raxón was “released from ICE custody on July 22”, according to the agency, which did not provide further details about the circumstances of his release.

Key questions about what happened next remain unanswered in the DHS account. The department did not say what occurred after Chajón-Raxón arrived at the hospital, whether he left the hospital before his death or exactly when he died.

“Per ICE policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur. This is common sense,” the DHS statement said.

The case comes after a policy shift announced earlier this year under which the agency stopped reporting deaths occurring within 30 days after a person is released from custody. That change reversed a policy put in place by the Biden administration in 2021.

US representative Rob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has regularly visited Delaney Hall, has sharply criticized the change. Menendez told the Associated Press that it creates a “loophole” allowing the agency to release someone from custody and then “claim it has no responsibility to investigate their death or inform Congress and the public”.

Chajón-Raxón’s death did not become publicly known until Menendez disclosed it last week in the aftermath of another death connected to the facility.

Delaney Hall has already faced scrutiny from human rights advocates and Democrats over two other deaths involving immigrants detained there.

Edwin López-Cornejo , a man from El Salvador, died earlier this month after experiencing a medical emergency while in ICE detention. Jean Wilson Brutus , a Haitian man who had also been detained at Delaney Hall, died in December.

The latest disclosure adds to broader concerns surrounding deaths in immigration detention. More than 50 people have died in ICE custody nationwide since Donald Trump took office, while rights groups have repeatedly raised alarms about medical care and conditions inside detention facilities.

Delaney Hall itself has increasingly drawn national attention. In recent months, protests have followed allegations of problems including physical abuse by guards and spoiled food. Those concerns escalated in late May, when at least 300 detainees organized a hunger and labor strike .

Weeks after that action began, women housed in a separate unit at Delaney Hall launched a hunger strike of their own. Their demands include improvements at the facility as well as calls for ICE to release women younger than 21, women with medical conditions and mothers.

ICE maintains that detainees receive appropriate medical care.