The New Jersey attorney general has opened a civil rights investigation into a 1,000-bed migrant detention center in Newark, ramping up the state’s fight against the Trump administration.
The attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, said on Friday that her office had issued subpoenas and would investigate whether employees at the center violated the civil rights of detainees.
The announcement was made days after a detainee died and his family denounced the center, known as Delaney Hall, for failing to tend to his medical needs.
The detainee, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, was 41 and from El Salvador. His family has expressed concern that he might not have been getting the medication he needed to treat his diabetes and epilepsy.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Geo Group, the private company that operates the detention center, referred questions to ICE.
Federal immigration officials said on Monday that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo had experienced a medical emergency at Delaney Hall and that employees there “responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services.”
“ICE and the Geo Group have continued to block our efforts for a full health inspection and there are now reports that visitations have been stopped,” Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said after the announcement by the attorney general. “I have long opposed private detention facilities, and my position is clear that Delaney Hall should be closed.”
Jorge Torres, a spokesman for Mr. Lopez-Cornejo’s family, said that his relatives were gratified that New Jersey officials had responded to their request for an outside inquiry.
“It’s a step forward,” Mr. Torres said in an interview during a wake for Mr. Lopez-Cornejo in Plainfield, N.J. “Let’s hope that it’s an independent investigation.”
Mr. Lopez-Cornejo is at least the second Delaney detainee to die in ICE custody in less than a year. Jean Wilson Brutus, a Haitian immigrant, died in December after being taken to a hospital soon after arriving at Delaney. He was also 41.
Detainees held at Delaney have a broad and complex mix of immigration statuses. Some crossed the border illegally, while others overstayed their visas, which is a civil, not a criminal, offense. Many have legally applied to live in the United States and are awaiting the outcome of their cases as the federal government works to limit pathways to citizenship.
Border Patrol officials said that Mr. Lopez-Cornejo had entered the United States illegally in 2006. An immigration judge had ordered him removed at that time, and he was deported to El Salvador two months later, according to federal officials. He entered the country illegally again later. He was detained at Delaney Hall pending removal from the United States.
At least 53 people have died in immigration detention centers since Mr. Trump took office last year, according to a New York Times analysis of news releases from the federal government.
Delaney Hall has been a persistent target of criticism from protesters and Democratic lawmakers since it reopened last year as part of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Detainees have long complained of inhumane living conditions there, and demonstrators have responded by gathering at the center’s front gates, where clashes with federal agents have at times turned violent.
Public records reviewed by The Times have validated some of the complaints made by detainees. The documents showed that inspectors had found food-preparation surfaces that had been left unsanitized. Workers had touched open garbage containers as they made meals and had not kept food at temperatures necessary to kill harmful contaminants.
The State Health Department received a complaint in May from a physician about a detainee with an active case of tuberculosis. The physician said that an employee at University Hospital in Newark had told her that the detainee was brought there and taken back to Delaney with no follow-up plan to contain the infection.
If the state finds evidence of civil rights violations at Delaney, Ms. Davenport said, the attorney general’s office will pursue “civil enforcement action” as a means to enforce local laws.
The federal government has refused to comply with other efforts by the Sherrill administration to modify the behavior of federal immigration officials in New Jersey.
In June, New Jersey sued Geo Group after state health officials were denied access to the medical unit at Delaney and several other areas of the center during an inspection. That litigation, which remains unresolved, is seeking to force the company to grant inspectors full access.
The Justice Department has also sued Ms. Sherrill and Ms. Davenport to halt implementation of a law that would bar all law enforcement officers in the state, including ICE agents, from wearing masks that shield their identity. The Trump administration has argued that a constitutional doctrine known as the supremacy clause makes federal officials immune from state prosecution when they are reasonably acting in their official capacity.
A federal judge this week blocked a similar mask ban in New York State.
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