6 events in Passaic County with a date

Release by ICE while dying, fates may go unreported

By: Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Jose Chajon-Raxon's casket was carried on the back of a pickup truck through his hometown of San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. An American flag coved the casket - a symbol of the country where the 39-year-old immigrant had sought a future , and where he later fell in immigration detention.
..... Chajon-Raxon was arrested on July 18 [2026] in Passaic and held at Delaney hall in Newark. [NJ] the next day, he suffered seizure-like symptoms and was taken to University Hospital.
..... Three days later, while he was still hospitalized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement granted him what the agency calls a discretionary release,. he died at the hospital.
..... Hundreds of miles away in Georgia, a similar pattern unfolded.
..... Prisciliano Trejo Ricano, 29, was released by ICE while unconscious in a hospital after spending roughly three weeks at Steward detention Center in Georgia. during his detention, he had complained of coughing up blood, severe pain, migraines and growing weakness. He was eventually diagnosed with aggressive leukemia.
..... ICE release him on July 16. [2026] he died at a hospital eight days later.
..... In both cases, the man were released from ICE custody while ill and died soon afterward - circumstances that may leave their deaths outside ICE's official reporting system.
..... In June, [2026] ICE stopped reporting deaths that occur within 30 days of a person's release from its custody.
..... Under the previous policy, those deaths were subject to public reporting and review.
..... Now if a person is released while ill and dies over the next few days or weeks, the death will not trigger the some reporting, congressional notification or internal oversight.
..... Advocates and lawmakers say the policy could make it harder to determine whether inadequate care in ICE detonation contributed to deaths that occur after release.
..... The changes is now drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
..... ICE has defended the change in reporting as straightforward.
..... "When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, then ICE will no lounger be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur," said the Departm4ent of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency. "this is common sense."

Response to 'deathbed releases'

..... The 30-day reporting mandate, originally adopted in 2021, followed years of scrutiny over cases in which detainees were released shortly before their deaths.
..... One was Martin Vargas Arellano, a 55-year-old Mexican immigrant who contracted COVID-19 while detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California, said a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his family.
..... On March 5, 2021, while he was brain-dead and in a coma at a hospital, ICE released him. He died three days later.
..... His family and attorney did not earn of his death until weeks afterward, when they field a missing-person report, court filings show. A court-appointed special master found that his release was an attempt to evade accountability and death-reporting requirements.
..... The case helped expose the problem hat the 30-day policy was intended to address: whither ICE could avoid reporting and reviewing a death by releasing a critically ill detainee before he or she died.
..... Leaders at the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued for records related to the deaths of Vargas Arellano and other detainees released shortly before their deaths, say the recent policy reversal will make it harder to identify problems, make reforms and hold people accountable.
..... "Eliminating a mechanism for investigations or accountability of reporting for what happens to these vulnerable individuals is a huge hindrance and part of a pattern to decrease oversight and transparency for this agency," said Carmen Iguina Gonzalez, deputy director for mitigation detention at the ACLU National Prison Project.
..... "It's hugely problematic for immigrant rights organizations and also for families and individual advocates who want to seek justice for their loved ones," she said.
..... ICE and DHS did not respond to request for comment about the repeal of the 30-day reporting mandate, transparency and accountability.

What disappears with reporting

..... Under the prior 30-day policy, a death shortly after release would trigger a formal review of the detention facility's medical response and notification to oversight bodies. those reviews could help determine whether a person received appropriate care, whether a hospital transfer came too late and whether a contractor's cost-cutting contributed to inadequate care.
..... Without that reporting requirement, deaths may surface only when families speak out or advocates investigate.
..... Representative Rob Menendez, D-Jersey City, [NJ] learned about Chajon-Raxon's death during an unannounced oversight visit to Delaney Hall on August 3, [2026] about two weeks after he died at University Hospital.
..... "Because of the release," Menendez told reporters in a press call, "they were no longer in ICE custody. Which is why there is not a notification that we got and should always get, when there is this type of incident."
..... ICE and DHS also did not disclose the date on which Chajon-Raxon died. His death was noted in social media posts on July 22 [2026] - the same day ICE and it released him.
..... Menendez accused ICE of reversing the policy to "cerate a loophole in which it can 'release' someone form ICE custody and them claim it has no responsibility to investigate their death or inform Congress and the public."
..... The policy change comes as ICE detention is rapidly expanding under the Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign. I total, ICE has reported 55 deaths in its custody since January 2025 - a pace that has drawn renewed attention to medical care, conditions and the transparency of the government's official death count.
..... That count may no longer cap[true the full toll of deaths connected to detention, advocates say.

Medical care under scrutiny

..... The reporting change comes amid broader scrutiny of medical care in ICE detention.
..... A June [2026] report by Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch examined 39 deaths between January 2025 and January 2026 and found evidence of inadequate, delayed or mishandled medical care in some cases, including untreated infections and delays o=in emergency treatment.
..... Dr. Katherine Peeler, a senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights and co-author of the report, said investigators repeatedly found delays in getting seriously ill detainees to outside hospitals.
..... "What we found is that there is often a delay in getting people to definite care, meaning that when someone s really in extremist, realty in bad medical shape, they would only go to an outside hospital when it was at the very last moment," Peeler said.
..... Earlier care, Peeler said, likely could have prevented some deaths.
..... "Knowing that there's already delays in getting people to care, to change this [reporting] policy, I think we're really concerned that ICE is going to decide to potentially release people when they are really sick, as opposed to sending them to care," Peeler said.

Lawmakers seek answers

..... As complaints grow, lawmakers say scrutiny must be intensified, not weakened.
..... Representative Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch, led a Tuesday, august 25, [2026] letter signed by 88 House Democrats demanding greater transparency on claimed care and deaths in ICE custody. The letter refers to reports from around the country and from some 300 federal court complaints alleging delayed and denied medical treatment, lack of medication and insufficient mental helaht services.
..... The lawmakers also criticized the repeal of the 30-day post-release death reporting requirement, warning that failure to report obscures the true human toll in private detention facilities.
..... They asked the DHS and ICE to identify everyone who, since January 20, 2025, was release or transferred after a serious medical emergency or while hospitalized - and whether those people subsequently died.
....."DHS and ICE have an obligation to determine whether failures in medical care contributed to deaths in federal custody or shortly after release, make those findings available to Congress, and hold responsible officials and contractors accountable," the lawmakers wrote.
..... Ever House Democrat from New Jersey signed the letter except Representative Josh Gottheimer, D-Tenafly.

Unreported

..... In Chajon-Raxo's hometown, mourners lined the streets for his funeral on August 2 [2026] and donated money to help his family. The service was streamed Online. A speaker reflected on Chjon-Raxon's life, saying he moved to the United States seeking opportunity and worked to support his family. ICE did not provide information about his mitigation status.
..... Trejo Ricano of Durham, North Carolina, had lived in the United States since he was 3. DHS told Newsweek he had been arrested and charged with driving while impaired and a hit-and-run in June [2026] and was later transfered to ICE.
..... Before his hospitalization, he wrote on Facebook hat he had a sever sore throat, migraines and blood in his cough, and said he had not gotten treatment or medication he needed.
..... By the time his family reached the hospital, Trejo Ricano had been intubated and diagnosed with acute leukemia.
..... DHS maintains that all detainees receive timely, comprehensive medical dental and mental health services, as well as 24-hour emergency care from the moment they enter custody.
..... The agency said protocol was followed in both cases. A nurse responded to a medical emergency involving Chajon-Raxon and he was taken to a hospital after experiencing "seizure-like activity," DHS said. The agency also denied that Trejo Ricano was not given media care.
..... But without an investigation, the families will not get the answers or justice they seek.
..... Amilcar Valencia, the executive director of El Refugio, which helps detainees at Steward Detention Center, said Trejo Ricano asked for, but did not receive, medical care for eight days until he was taken to the hospital on July 12. [2026]
..... "His death will likely not be reported by ICE," Valencia said. "However, they are responsible for the care for people in there custody."
..... Valencia said he spoke with Trejo Ricano's father, who could not understand how his son's health had deteriorated so quickly.
..... "He demands answers and the truth," Valencia said.

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