Rep. Ritchie Torres and Rep. George Latimer introduced legislation Thursday that would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to notify families when a detainee dies, is hospitalized or experiences a medical emergency in custody.
The Families Deserve to Know Act comes after the lawmakers visited Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark, where Edwin Lopez-Cornejo died in ICE custody.
Lopez-Cornejo, who emigrated from El Salvador nearly two decades ago, was detained by ICE on June 18. His family has said he was denied lifesaving medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and a seizure disorder while in custody.
His mother said she was not notified by ICE about his condition or death. Instead, she learned her son had died when a hospital called and asked her to come identify his body.
The proposed legislation would make family notification a legal requirement and require ICE to document and audit its compliance. The bill would also require the agency to report every death in custody to Congress and the public.
Contractors that fail to notify a detainee’s family could face financial penalties for each day they fail to provide notification. The bill would also allow ICE to terminate contracts with noncompliant contractors and bar them from future federal detention work.
“A family’s right to know shouldn’t depend on ICE’s good will or an internal memo the agency can rewrite whenever it wants,” Rep. Torres said.
“But that’s exactly what Edwin Lopez-Cornejo’s mother was left to rely on. She found out her son was dead because a hospital called and asked her to identify his body. Nobody at Delaney Hall ever told her. It’s a failure ICE shouldn’t be allowed to repeat, and it’s why this bill puts notification into law instead of leaving it to an agency’s discretion.”
Families would additionally have a private right of action, allowing them to sue in federal court if ICE or a contractor fails to provide the required notification.
The bill comes as Torres has increased his criticism of ICE’s treatment of detainees amid stepped-up immigration enforcement in New York. Torres has called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate what he described as “brutal detention” by ICE, including the arrest of Jeury Concepcion, an American citizen who was arrested in Norwood.
Latimer, whose district includes Westchester County and portions of the Bronx, also criticized the conditions he observed during his visit to Delaney Hall.
“I recently experienced the dehumanizing conditions at Delaney Hall, where detainees are being warehoused without proper sanitation and medical care,” Rep. Latimer said.
“These conditions are the reason that Edwin Lopez-Cornejo’s family is without a father and husband today. Edwin’s family should have learned the status of his health from ICE, not from the hospital staff once it was too late.”
The bill would not provide ICE with additional funding or new authority. Instead, Torres and Latimer said it would establish a legal obligation for the agency to notify families when detainees are seriously ill, hospitalized or have died in custody.
Reach Marina Samuel at msamuel@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
