Menendez says a discretionary release allowed ICE to avoid reporting the death as occurring in custody.

An immigrant detainee died after a medical episode at Delaney Hall last month, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not publicly disclose the death because the agency recently changed how it reports detainee fatalities, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez said this week.

The disclosure brings the number of known detainee deaths at Delaney Hall to three as the controversial immigrant detention center continues to face scrutiny over complaints about squalid living conditions, poor food, and medical neglect.

It also raises questions about transparency and accountability, since ICE last month dropped a Biden-era rule requiring the agency to review and report all detainee fatalities, including those that occur after release.

“This is common sense,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News. “ICE is not responsible when an individual passes away weeks after leaving their custody.”

Menendez said he believes the policy change allowed ICE to avoid publicly reporting the death because the detainee had been administratively released to a hospital before dying.

“This is meant to keep the number of deaths that are being reported as ‘in ICE custody’ to as low of a number as possible,” the congressman said in an Instagram video.

Menendez said this week that he confirmed details about the death during an unannounced oversight visit to Delaney Hall after ICE and GEO Group officials briefed him. He said his office first learned of the death on July 24 but was unable to verify additional details until this week.

The congressman said the detainee arrived at Delaney Hall sometime during the week of July 20 and was going through the facility’s intake process when the detainee suffered a medical emergency.

Staff members at the 1,000-bed facility on Doremus Avenue believed the detainee was having a seizure and called 911, Menendez said. EMS workers arrived about 30 minutes later and took the person to University Hospital in Newark, where the detainee died shortly afterward.

According to Menendez, ICE did not publicly report the death because the agency granted the detainee a “discretionary release” into the hospital’s care.

“Because of the release, [the detainee] was technically no longer in ICE custody, which is why there [was] no notification that we … should always get when there’s this type of incident,” he continued.

Menendez said he believes the hospital, rather than ICE, would have been responsible for reporting the death. But he said no notification was made, and his office only learned of the death through an information chain that began at the hospital.

He also said he believes that is why ICE has not provided his office with additional information about the death.

“Because the person was out of their custody, they were not forthcoming with additional details,” Menendez said.

GEO Group, the private prison company with a 15-year, $1 billion contract to operate Delaney Hall, referred inquiries to ICE.

Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to a request for comment Wednesday. University Hospital also did not respond to inquiries.

Menendez said his office will continue pressing ICE and GEO Group for answers about the death, as well as the ongoing complaints of inadequate medical care at Delaney Hall.

“This is completely unacceptable,” he said. “This should horrify every American.”