ICE policy bars monitoring deaths after release from custody, DHS says
The Department of Homeland Security disclosed Wednesday that Jose Chajon-Raxon, a Guatemalan man detained at a New Jersey immigration jail, died after suffering a seizure, but said the agency had not publicly announced the death because it was not notified after transferring him to a hospital.
Chajon-Raxon had the seizure on July 19, a day after being processed into Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility in Newark, according to a DHS statement. The agency said Chajon-Raxon was “taken to the hospital and released from ICE custody on July 22.”
DHS did not specify when he died, what occurred after his release from ICE custody, or whether he was released from the hospital before his death.
The agency’s explanation for not publicly disclosing the death centered on Chajon-Raxon’s custody status at the time. “Per ICE policy, when an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for monitoring or reviewing deaths that may occur,” the DHS statement said. “This is common sense.”
The written DHS statement addressed what it characterized as an absence of notification after the hospital transfer, rather than the medical circumstances surrounding Chajon-Raxon’s death. The agency did not identify the hospital where he was taken or describe the medical care he received before or after the transfer.
The disclosure came on Wednesday, more than three weeks after the July 19 seizure.