Without her father

Half a year into fatherhood, Edwin Jeovanny López Cornejo found the sight of his daughter, Ashley, revitalizing after a long day at work.

It was 2014. López Cornejo, an immigrant from El Salvador, had been working at a packaging company in South Plainfield, N.J. for about seven years. He came to the United States in 2007, filed an asylum claim, and received employee authorization from the federal government after being deported the year prior, according to court documents.

As he would often do in the years that followed, he took to Facebook to express his gratitude to God and his love for his daughter.

“Thank you my God for having given me this beautiful gift. Today my beautiful girl turns 6 months old, my daughter, let me tell you how much I love youuuuuuuuuuu. I know you still don’t understand, but one day you will see how much I do when I come home from work tired and almost dead from sleep and you are awake, all that exhaustion is taken away by seeing you and hugging you and giving you many kisses, you are my light, my beautiful baby, your father Jeovanny Cornejo loves you.”

This past Friday, Ashley Lopéz, now 12, wore all black. She stood between her paternal grandparents as they held each other and wept at her father’s wake at Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church in Plainfield.

López Cornejo had died in ICE custody just under a week prior at the age of 39 after experiencing what the federal agency called a medical emergency at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark run by the private company GEO Group.

Ashley has barely been speaking. Or eating. And she doesn’t want to be around people, María Cornejo, her paternal grandmother, told The Inquirer in an interview on Monday, speaking in Spanish.

Letters of support submitted to the court after his June arrest, remarks from his family, and more than a decade of public Facebook posts written in Spanish paint the picture of a father who deeply loved his daughter.

Twelve years ago, Lopéz Cornejo and his then-girlfriend were expecting twins, but the boy died in the fifth month of pregnancy, Cornejo said.

“She is the only child he had, you should have seen him when she was born. That man was the most joyful man with his daughter in his arms,” Cornejo said. “It was his first time being a father and he wouldn’t even sleep so he could watch her sleep and make sure she was okay.”

López Cornejo wasn’t able to see his daughter at Delaney Hall. He had been there for about six weeks.

Delaney Hall has been the site of high-profile political clashes representing the national conflict between Trump’s supporters and immigration rights supporters. The detention center serves a critical role for the president’s mass deportation agenda, and complaints of poor and unsanitary conditions have sparked continuous protests, uproar from Democratic lawmakers, and a reported hunger strike inside that the Trump administration denied happened.

In December, a 41-year-old Haitian national named Jean Wilson Brutus died one day after entering Delaney Hall, and U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D., N.J.) recently said another person died at the hospital after a potential seizure at the facility earlier this summer. Nationally there have been at least 23 fatalities reported in ICE custody this year as the rate has increased during Trump’s second term.

López Cornejo’s asylum claim was still pending — 19 years after he filed it — when ICE agents arrested him, according to a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention.

Around 9 a.m. on June 18, López Cornejo headed out to pick up his car from a towing company because it was parked for too long, his mother recounted Monday. She urged him to take a taxi and avoid walking given a heightened fear of running into ICE in the community.

She said goodbye, unaware it would be the last time she hugged her son.

Lopéz Cornejo ended up walking because roads were closed.

Masked agents stopped him and asked for his ID. When he produced his Salvadorian identification, they put him in an unmarked vehicle with two other people who had already been detained, his lawyer Ingrid Echeverria recounted in the habeas corpus petition.

Cornejo said her son called her from inside Delaney Hall that evening. The first question he asked was about Ashley.

According to his family and court documents, he took medicine for diabetes, epilepsy, and high blood pressure. Interruption of his strict medication schedule carries the risk of breakthrough seizures and associated harm, according to the petition. That July 24 court document didn’t accuse ICE of denying him his medication but expressed concern over potential medical risks if he was transferred to another facility, as the agency at one point planned.

On. Aug 1, Cornejo got a call from University Hospital in Newark. The person on the phone told her that her son’s heart wasn’t beating by the time he arrived after collapsing at Delaney Hall. ICE has not released an official cause of death but Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) said it was a heart attack and cardiac arrest. Days after his death, Kim and fellow New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker put forward legislation that would require the shuttering of Delaney Hall.

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said Friday that her office was launching a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, citing reports of “alarming conditions” and recent deaths.

In response to López Cornejo’s death, ICE put out a statement that says everyone in ICE detention gets proper, round-the-clock medical care, and that López Cornejo “was seen by medical professionals.”

But his family doesn’t buy it. They blame ICE for detaining him and accuse the agency of failing to provide him proper medical care. Danilo López, his brother, said at a news conference that his brother told him over the phone that he had to fill out a form to just get Tylenol at Delaney Hall and it could be days before he received it, a claim ICE did not directly address when asked.

“He lived a normal life and worked normally while taking his medicine and with a proper diet, working more than 8 hours a day and had no problem,” Cornejo said in the interview.

Just days after her father died, Ashley López said at a news conference: “On the same day, we were both dead. The only difference was his heart stopped beating. I am going to grow up without a father.”

On his daughter’s first birthday, López Cornejo wrote on Facebook that Ashley gave him “one more reason to live.”

“I want to tell you that when I learned you were going to be born it felt like it would be forever before I had you in my arms,” he wrote. “I will never forget the first day that I changed you and gave you a feeding bottle. Wow my girl, those moments I will never forget and now you are turning one. Wow how the time passes.”

On her third birthday, he called her “the true love of my life,” and said she motivates him to be strong and keep moving forward.

“I would be willing to give my life for yours,” he wrote.

On his own birthday, he often thanked God for another year of life. And as a birthday wish, he asked for another year to see his daughter grow.

“Thank you Lord Jesus for allowing me another year of life. I ask you to give me a few more years so I can see my daughter grow, who is the reason to keep working hard and provide for her as much as I can. I only ask for your health Lord.”

Ashley, a U.S. citizen, was born in New Jersey, according to the petition, which includes her birth certificate and public school records to support his lawyer’s argument that López Cornejo has community ties. The documents show she received a certificate of achievement for math at 9 years old “for demonstrating fluency of division” in less than six seconds. And shortly after she turned 10, she was crowned “Art Leader of the Week.”

Ashley lived with her dad half the week, but he picked her up from school every day, and she would run into his arms to greet him, Cornejo said. He took pride in her success in school.

“He would tell her ‘I want you to be a doctor so you can cure me one day,’” she said.

López Cornejo started working in construction just 3 weeks before his detention after the warehouse he worked at changed locations, his mother said.

Court documents show he worked at UpperClass Warehouse in South Plainfield from March 2021 until this May, and he previously worked multiple restaurant jobs in New Jersey. He paid taxes to the state of New Jersey and the federal government.

Jesse Fischbein, vice president of finance at Just Packaging, where López Cornejo worked from 2007 to 2015, said in a letter of support attached to the petition filed with the court last month that he was “truly was a company-first employee, who didn’t believe that the workday was simply 7 AM to 3:30 PM.”

“He was punctual, always pitching in to help other employees when his tasks were completed, and always asked management if there was more to be done,” Fischbein wrote.

But Fischbein said there was one thing López Cornejo would always be better at than his job: Being a father.

“From what I know about him outside of work — he is a father, and that is the job he excels at more than any function he performs for my company,” Fischbein said.

A coworker-turned-friend, Juan Zavala, said in another letter of support that López Cornejo had “earned the respect of everyone around him,” through kindness, compassion, respect, and honesty.

“He is a loving, responsible and caring parent who is deeply involved with his daughter’s life and always puts her well-being first. It is very clear that his family means everything to him,” Zavala wrote.

One of the ways López Cornejo expressed himself to his loved ones was by sharing links to music on Facebook. He dedicated love songs to his daughter and others; he shared reflections during the pandemic with a Christian worship song, and he said the music video for Pose by Daddy Yankee — the singer known for hit song Gasolina – inspired him to learn to dance reggaeton.

López Cornejo and Ashley dreamed about dancing together at her quinceañera, a celebration for her 15th birthday.

“He just wanted to dance the waltz with his little girl, and they so looked forward to that party,” Cornejo said, crying. “Now my little girl won’t have her dad.”

In the petition, his lawyer called on ICE to explain why he was detained, and either consider his immediate release or a hearing in front of an immigration judge.

His lawyer said he was served with documents in English he could not read, and that he did not have a criminal record and always showed up for his court dates.

His friends and family described him in similar terms in letters of support submitted to the court last month.

Kelvin E. Urquilla Flores, who met López Corneja at Just Packaging nearly 20 years ago, described him as “a peace-loving, law-abiding individual,” who is “an asset to this country and to his community.”

Edgar Fabián Guaman, who said he’s known López Cornejo for almost two decades, said that his family friend doesn’t present a risk to the community — but instead improves the wellbeing of those around him.

“I respectfully express that a possible separation of Mr. López Cornejo from his family unit would have profoundly difficult consequences for his daughter and his mother, who depend on his presence, support, and emotional stability,” Guaman wrote.

Through his Facebook posts, López Cornejo shared a deep appreciation for his parents. In May 2016, he thanked God for giving him “an exemplary mother,” who he also described as a “second mother” to his own daughter.

“Maybe I’m not the perfect son, but I try to behave at your level, mother,” he wrote. “I know you gave me the greatest gift, life, and I will never be able to repay you, mother.”

The last post that shows up on López Cornejo’s Facebook page was a message directed to God and his daughter on her 12th birthday last November.

“Thank you, Lord, for providing me with health and the ability to see my beloved daughter grow, the light of my eyes. Thank you, Father, for giving my princess another year of life. I only ask you, Father, to provide her with health and wisdom so that she continues on the right path, that you have taken her on. I love you very much, daughter. Your father wishes you a Happy Birthday.”

– Staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.