2 of 4 ICE detainees who escaped from NJ facility captured: FBI
Two of four detainees who escaped from an immigration detention center in New Jersey on Friday have been captured, authorities said on Sunday.
The FBI's Newark field office said the detainees, Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez and Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada, were back in custody but did not immediately release details about their reported apprehension.
Detainees Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Andres Pineda-Mogollon, who also escaped Friday from Delaney Hall Detention Facility in in Newark, remained at large on Sunday, officials said.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said at a news conference on Friday that the four men escaped from the privately owned facility that has been contracted out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by breaking through a wall – which he described as "drywall with a mesh interior" – in a unit that led to an exterior wall and into a parking lot. Kim said he was briefed on escape by the facility's administrators and ICE officials.
Kim said the detainees bolted from the Delaney Hall during an "uprising" at the facility.
However, the Department of Homeland Security released a subsequent statement saying, "contrary to current reporting, there has been no widespread unrest at the Delaney Hall Detention facility."
DHS described all four detainees who escaped as "public safety threats."
The agency said Bautista-Reyes is from Honduras and that he allegedly illegally entered the United States in 2021. On May 3, 2025, the Wayne Township, N.J., Police Department arrested Bautista-Reyes on charges of aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats and possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, according to DHS.
Pineda-Mogollon of Colombia entered the United States in 2023 and is illegally in country after overstaying a tourist visa, according to DHS.
On April 25, the New York City Police Department arrested Pineda-Mogollon for petit larceny, DHS said. After being released in New York City, Pineda-Mogollon was arrested on May 21 by the Union, N.J. Police Department on suspicion of residential burglary, conspiracy residential burglary and possession of burglary tools, according to DHS.
Captured detainee Castaneda-Lozada, also of Colombia, illegally entered the U.S. in 2022, according to DHS. He was arrested on May 15 in Hammonton, N.J., on suspicion of burglary, theft and conspiracy to commit burglary, DHS said.
The other captured detainee, Sandoval-Lopez of Honduras, illegally entered the U.S. as a minor in 2019. He was arrested on Feb. 15 by Passaic, N.J., police on a charge of aggravated assault. Sandoval-Lopez was also arrested on Oct. 3 in Passaic police on charges of unlawful possession of a handgun, according to DHS.
