Overview:
Family members of Jean Wilson Brutus, who died sooner or later after coming into ICE custody in Newark, has launched a GoFundMe to cowl funeral prices as they await solutions about his demise and pursue an unbiased post-mortem.
NEWARK — Relations of Jean Wilson Brutus, who died whereas in custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have launched a GoFundMe campaign to cowl funeral bills whereas they proceed to hunt solutions about his demise.
Brutus died Dec. 12, sooner or later after he was detained at Delaney Corridor, a privately run immigration detention middle in Newark, New Jersey. ICE mentioned he skilled a medical emergency and later died at College Hospital. The company initially attributed the demise to “pure causes,” then mentioned the trigger was “unknown” and later “inconclusive.”
For Brutus’s kinfolk, the shifting explanations have compounded their grief.
“To this present day, we nonetheless don’t have any clear solutions about what really occurred,” Evans Belony, Brutus’s cousin and household spokesperson, wrote on the GoFundMe web page.
“The shortage of transparency has deepened our ache and left us with unanswered questions that no household ought to must dwell with,” he wrote. “In the present day, our household is confronted with the duty of giving Jean the farewell he deserves. That is about dignity. It’s about respect.”
The GoFundMe marketing campaign comes as Brutus’s kinfolk delay funeral preparations whereas they search an unbiased post-mortem, a step they are saying is important earlier than they’ll lay him to relaxation. Funds raised will go towards funeral and memorial companies, burial bills and a repass so household, pals and supporters can collect to recollect him. The household says the sudden nature of his demise and the continued investigation have made the monetary burden overwhelming.
As of Jan. 22, solely $424 of the $50,000 purpose had been raised.
In search of life in America
In interesting for donations, the household shared some particulars about Brutus’ life. They mentioned Brutus fled Haiti due to escalating gang violence that has engulfed Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, turning each day life into what they describe as a struggle zone.
“Jean didn’t go away his homeland as a result of he needed to.” Belony wrote. “He left as a result of he needed to dwell.”
Initially from Croix-des-Bouquets, Brutus first migrated to Brazil in 2018 earlier than coming into the U.S. in 2023 by means of the Biden administration’s humanitarian parole program, in line with his kinfolk and immigration advocates. He settled in Irvington, New Jersey, the place cousins say he lived with household and had an energetic asylum utility pending.
Jean Wilson Brutus, kinfolk say, lived quietly however generously.
“He was poor in cash however wealthy in coronary heart,” Belony wrote. “He confirmed love by means of motion.”
Discovering a mysterious ending
Brutus’s demise was the second reported demise of a Haitian immigrant in ICE custody in 2025, in line with the company’s Detainee Death Reporting page. His passing has drawn renewed scrutiny of circumstances at Delaney Corridor, which opened in 2025 to assist fill the Trump administration’s mass deportation quotas and faces repeated criticism from immigrant advocates and elected officers.
ICE has mentioned Brutus confirmed no indicators of misery throughout consumption and had no documented historical past of cardiovascular sickness. Advocates and lawmakers have questioned how he may die inside hours of detention with out clearer public accounting.