Sen. Andy Kim visits Delaney Hall, questions medical staff about detainee deaths

Kim says a single physician is not enough for more than 800 detainees.

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim said Thursday that the medical staff at the Delaney Hall immigration detention center repeatedly denied responsibility for deaths at the facility, despite detainee complaints that they’ve been unable to get prescription medication or see the doctors and specialists they need.

Kim’s comments came after he made an Aug. 20 oversight visit to the controversial Newark facility on Doremus Avenue, where detainees told him of alleged medical neglect by the staff who are supposed to care for them.

“I spoke with a group of detainees continuing to talk about lack of access to prescription medication, requesting to go see a doctor when they’re feeling chest pains and other problems, and not being given access to [those] doctors,” Kim said as he stood outside Delaney’s barbed-wire fence Thursday morning.

“They were just repeating that over and over,” he continued. “Several of them were crying, talking about the pain they’re in. It was tough to see people crying as they’re talking to me about not getting the care they say they need.”

The single doctor and a handful of nurses and nurse practitioners who work at Delaney told the senator they’d done nothing wrong.

“They’re denying that there were any problems in terms of getting medication, [and] denying they had any responsibility for the deaths that occurred here,” Kim said, referring to detainees who died over the last nine months after being held at Delaney Hall.

“They continue to say they’re providing adequate health care,” he added. “But we continue to hear from detainees that’s not the case.”

Neither U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to requests from The Vindicator for comment.

GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs the site as part of a 15-year, $1 billion contract, also did not respond.

In the past, the agencies and the company have denied any wrongdoing or negligence.

Detainees have complained about the conditions at Delaney Hall, a mammoth 1,000-bed detention center near the mouth of Newark Bay, almost since the day it opened in May 2025.

Both detainees and their families have repeatedly described squalid living conditions inside, including foul water, inedible food, and erratic mealtimes and medical care.

Three men also died after being held at the facility: Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old undocumented Haitian man; Edwin Jovanny Lopez-Cornejo, 41, of El Salvador; and Jose Chajon-Raxon, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.

The deaths and detainee complaints have led Kim to argue that the facility desperately needs more physicians and nurses.

“They disagree with me, but I think one physician for over 800 detainees … I don’t think that’s enough given the severity of the concerns I’m hearing,” he said. “But [GEO] doesn’t want to hire medical staff because it’s a for-profit company.”

Kim also questioned staff members specifically about the circumstances surrounding the detainee deaths.

The staff members denied any fault when it came to Lopez-Cornejo, Kim said, despite his family claiming that he’d complained to guards about feeling tired and dizzy just hours before his Aug. 1 death at University Hospital.

Lopez-Cornejo dealt with several chronic health conditions and needed medication to manage his diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures, according to his family.

Kim also noted that Lopez-Cornejo lost upward of 30 pounds during his time at the detention center.

“He had medical supplies because he suffered from health issues, and they did not provide them to him as they should have,” his brother, Daniel Lopez, told Cosecha New Jersey earlier this month. “Because of that, perhaps, was my brother’s death.”

The staff told Kim that wasn’t true.

“They’re denying it, they’re saying he did not come to them with his complaints the day before,” the senator said. “They believe he had been taking his medication. They don’t think that there’s any fault of their own.”

In the case of Chajon-Raxon, immigration authorities refused to take responsibility because they discharged him before he died and said they weren’t notified when he died.

But Chajon-Raxon was at the facility when he collapsed and had a seizure July 19, a DHS spokesperson told The Jersey Vindicator.

“They brought him in, he was going through medical intake,” Kim said. “You can’t just throw him out to University Hospital [after] and say, ‘We’re done with him.’ I just find that to be both wrong and inhumane. That’s not the accountability the American people deserve.”

The dispute centers on when the government’s responsibility for Chajon-Raxon ended. DHS said he had been discharged before his death and that hospital officials were responsible for reporting it, while Kim argued that the agency still bore responsibility because Chajon-Raxon’s medical emergency began while he was at Delaney Hall.

“He was in your building,” Kim said. “He stepped foot in Delaney, got sent from here to a hospital … They do bear responsibility to say he was on Delaney property, that this death was connected. That’s what I find so disgraceful in terms of lack of accountability and responsibility.”

Kim also said detainees have claimed their lawyers aren’t being allowed to come in and meet with them, which he called “unacceptable.”

ICE and GEO Group representatives disputed that claim as well.

“They’re saying visitation is available right now,” he said. “What we’re hearing from the detainees is still just not meshing with what I’m hearing from GEO Group, what I’m hearing from ICE. And that’s just a constant source of frustration.”