Dhs Confirms Death After Delaney Hall Medical Emergency, Key Details Still Missing
What happened
Where it happened
- Newark, Essex County.
What remains unclear
- A Guatemalan man who suffered a seizure one day after entering Delaney Hall in Newark has died, and federal officials still have not said when or how.
- What happened after that is unclear.
A Guatemalan man who suffered a seizure one day after entering Delaney Hall in Newark has died, and federal officials still have not said when or how.
The Department of Homeland Security identified him as Jose Chajon-Raxon. According to DHS, he was processed into the immigration detention center on July 18, suffered the seizure July 19 and was taken to a hospital. ICE released him from custody July 22.
What happened after that is unclear. DHS has not said whether Chajon-Raxon ever left the hospital, when he died or what caused his death.
The case is also putting ICE's reporting rules under public scrutiny. The agency no longer reports deaths that happen within 30 days after someone is released from custody. Rep. Rob Menendez called that change an accountability loophole. DHS defended the policy and said ICE remains committed to transparency about deaths in detention.
Chajon-Raxon's death first became public when Menendez disclosed it last week while discussing another Delaney Hall detainee who died in early August. Federal officials have since confirmed the basic custody and hospital timeline, but not the circumstances of Chajon-Raxon's death.
His family and the public are still waiting for the most basic answers: what happened after he was taken to the hospital, when he died and what caused his death. DHS and ICE have not provided those details.
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