♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, they're tracking you everywhere you go.

We get the latest on license plate readers and why some lawmakers are trying to rein them in.

And later, AI in hospitals.

How new technology is helping medical teams detect early warning signs to help save lives.

But first, we talk with Democratic Congresswoman Lamonica McIver about her reaction to the news that another detainee has died at Dulaney Hall.

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

Delaney Hall detention centers faced a lot of scrutiny from immigrants rights groups and legislators both in New Jersey and nationwide since it reopened in 2025.

This past weekend, a man who was detained there named Edwin Giovanni Lopez Cornejo suffered a medical emergency and later died at University Hospital.

His mother, Maria Cornejo, has said that her son was prescribed medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and seizures, and she believes he was denied access to his medications during his detainment.

ICE confirmed Lopez-Cornejo's death in a press release on Monday, saying, "While in custody, Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care."

The news has sparked outrage in the state, including from Governor Mikey Sherrill, who is one of many officials calling for the closure of the facility.

Congresswoman LaMonica McIver has also been a vocal critic of the facility and the Trump administration's immigration policies and she joins us now to discuss.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for taking some time to talk to us today.

I want to start with reports, news that we heard of a man who died in ICE custody on Saturday.

What do you know?

What can you tell us about the details around his death?

So thank you so much for the question.

It's super unfortunate.

Once again another death at Delaney Hall Detention Center and from what we know the young man Edwin, a 39 year old from Plainfield, had an emergency from what it appears a heart attack had occurred at Delaney Hall and when he arrived at University Hospital he was unresponsive and considered to be dead when he arrived there.

We understand that this gentleman had underlying health conditions from high blood pressure to diabetes and required medical treatment that as I've continued to say from the beginning Delaney Hall is not you know adequate enough to be giving medical treatment to folks who have chronic diseases at this center and because of such suffered this tragic you know emergency experience that you know ended up with him losing his life.

I spoke with Congressman Jeff Andrew, Republican, your counterpart, your colleague down in Congress.

He says that there is adequate medical care.

He says that the food is sufficient.

He says that this is a very, very well run facility.

And your Democratic colleague, Congressman Robin Endes, on the flip side, is talking about publicly ICE changing the detention status of folks, sometimes when they have these medical issues.

And he says that ICE has a practice where they release detainees when there's a medical issue.

So my question to you is, who has it right?

Who has it wrong here?

Do you agree with either of your colleagues?

Well, the first thing that I will say is Congressman Van Drew is a liar.

You know, I have been to this detention center on many occasions, both myself and Congressman Rob Menendez, where we have personally experienced not being able to talk to a doctor, where we have spoken to the team there in the medical office who literally could not answer questions for us.

We both Robin and myself have gone many times and spoke to detainees who told us that they have not been given adequate medical care, that they have requested medication from pregnant women who have been detained at this location, who suffered miscarriages from not having proper OB/GYN care.

And so, you know, Congressman Van Drew, who showed up at the last minute to go to this facility just one time, finding his way somehow to Newark, you know, a yellow brick road led him there, who says everything is going great at this location, is just lying and taking up for his Republican colleagues and this president, who we know has been operating the ice, you know, the ice structure literally just cruel and chaotic.

You continue to call for Delaney Hall to be closed, yes?

Absolutely.

Delaney Hall needs to be closed.

It is a detention center of cruelty and chaos and should not be open and we continue to see examples of this with another death there and many folks who continue to complain about the conditions of this location.

It should not be open.

It should not be being ran.

Let me ask you this, Congresswoman.

There are many who will say that we need detention centers to enforce our immigration policies, that our immigration policies need to be enforced.

Do you disagree?

Well, no, not 100%.

No, I think that, look, this country definitely needs to have immigration reform.

We need to work on that.

I think that that's number one should be a priority for both sides of the aisles.

But at the end of the day, do I co-sign a facility that is open and should not be operating because they do not have the adequate attention, they don't have adequate food, they do not have medical care.

GEO Group has not been a great operator of this location, and it should not be open.

Americans should not be having their tax dollars spent to enforce cruelty and chaos at these locations.

Once again, this is a detention center that has a $2 billion contract with the federal government that tax dollars are being paid for, public dollars, and it's unacceptable, and it should not be functioning or open.

I want to switch gears and ask you about Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

I know that you and Congressman Menendez went to his confirmation hearing.

His nomination moved forward today after he was able to reach a deal with two Republican senators who had been holding out on the deal, John Cornyn and Tom Tillis.

The deal was to end this nearly $1.8 billion fund, it's called the Anti-Weaponization Fund, that would go to people who say they've been harmed by the Department of Justice.

Your thoughts on whether he should be confirmed as attorney general?

Look, it is unfortunate that Todd Blanch is moving forward, you know, for a vote in front of the entire Senate.

He is unfit, you know, unqualified, and should not be serving as this country's attorney - next attorney general or acting attorney general.

He is just going to be another - Why?

Why do you feel that way?

He is going to be another mouthpiece on behalf of the president.

During his confirmation hearing, he actually stated that he was the president's attorney.

And he is not the attorney for the president.

He is the attorney for the United States of America, for the people in this country.

And he has literally demonstrated multiple times, going back to last May, where he ordered the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka for no apparent reason.

And we continue to see him acting out in an unfashionable, unprofessional manner.

And I don't think that both of the two Republicans that held out in the beginning should trust a word that is coming out of Todd Blanche's mouth.

And so it's truly unfortunate.

And I will continue to say that he should not be the Attorney General, let alone working in the cabinet of the executive branch.

You yourself have made the claim that you've been targeted by the Department of Justice.

I want to ask where your case is.

I know that you appealed in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Do you have any updates for us there?

So we are currently waiting for an opinion from the Third Circuit.

We are, you know, confident, you know, in our case and our argument.

As I continue to say, since I was charged via Twitter by Alina Haba, that, you know, these charges are bogus.

You know, they honestly are just political intimidation and prosecution.

And at the end of the day, it's unfortunate that I have to be going through this situation.

It's super unfair and expensive on my account.

But this is what happens when you stand up to this administration, hold them accountable and protect the people that, you know, I have been elected to protect, which I do not apologize for.

as a member of Congress, and I'm going to continue to do that on behalf of the people of the 10th Congressional District.

I'm going to turn it over to you, Ms.

Bannonzi.

>> Thank you, Ms.

Bannonzi.

Can you tell us about this bill and what it would do?

>> Yes.

So thank you so much for bringing that up.

It's a very important bill.

As you know right now, many of our small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout this country get resources and assistance through our small business centers through the SBA.

And since Trump has come back into office 2.0, SBA, underneath his leadership, has tried to strip away those resources for our entrepreneurs in this country.

And so this bill would basically help provide more funding to be able to keep these small business centers open, to be able to be a resource and support to our small business owners.

Small business owners are struggling, like many Americans in this country right now.

And we should be helping them and supporting them, not stripping away support.

And as a member of the Small Business -- the Small Business Administration Committee, this is something I'm truly passionate about, not just for the business owners in the 10th Congressional District, but throughout New Jersey and throughout this country.

- Very quickly, do you think this will have bipartisan support, $175 million that you're asking for here?

- I think so.

The only way that it wouldn't, if Republicans are playing politics and choosing not to work with me because of other matters or, you know, punishing me because of me doing my job as it relates to Homeland Security.

But at the end of the day, this is to support businesses that, you know, are in red districts, blue districts.

You know, this is to support everyone.

It's not a Democratic, you know, bill.

It's something for everyone to get behind.

and so I really hope my Republican colleagues can put aside political, you know, intimidation and the mindset and really get on board for the greater good of the businesses in their districts.

We have to leave it there.

I want to thank you so much for your time today, Congresswoman LaMonica McIver in the 10th Congressional District.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Odds are you've driven past one and didn't even notice.

There are license plate reader cameras tracking cars all across the state.

An NJ.com investigation found that these auto license plate readers called ALPRs actually record every car that passes, everything from the plate to the make, model, even a dent or bumper sticker.

>>> We are now used by 523 of the state's roughly 530 law enforcement agencies, which credit them with recovering stolen cars and finding missing people.

But some Trenton lawmakers want limits on how they're used and how footage is stored.

We're joined now by the NJ.com investigative reporter on this story, Jana Czolokowska, who joins us as part of our Under the Dome series.

Jana, great to have you on the show.

You recently wrote a story about traffic cameras that are all over the place.

They capture license plate images.

We're pretty used to cameras being ever-present in our lives these days.

What's significant here about these cameras?

Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me.

What's really significant about these cameras, which are called automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, is that they are used to track the license plates of all cars in the city.

And in New Jersey, 523 of the 530 law enforcement agencies in the state use it.

So if you've driven anywhere in the Garden State, chances are your car has been caught on one of these cameras.

That begs the question, who contracts for this footage?

And what do we know about how it's shared and how it's stored?

There are a couple of big players in the industry.

I think the one that people will know the most is Flock Safety.

They are sort of like the major provider of these kinds of cameras and this kind of technology.

There are a couple of others and they contract with law enforcement agencies and this might include sheriff's offices, local PD, prosecutor's offices, etc.

And they provide this technology to local law enforcement to be able to track vehicles.

Now that happens in a couple of ways.

You know, the most concerning of all that experts told us about was that it's not just that these cameras capture a license plate, but they also capture what the industry calls vehicle fingerprinting.

So it's the make, the model, the color of the car, any sort of definable characteristics.

So dents, even stickers.

So for example, law enforcement is able to search through a wide database of, you know, let's say a white Toyota Camry with a dent in the back and be able to pull up all the cars that match that description.

And the reason they're able to do that is the storage system that you point out in your reporting looks different in New Jersey than it looks like in other states.

Can you draw that comparison for us?

Absolutely.

Yeah, New Jersey holds this data, the state police holds this data for three years, which is significantly longer than most other states where the local law enforcement holds the data between 60 to 90 days and even as little as five minutes.

Now, the way that this works is basically certain cars are on a particular list, Ebola list, an AMBER alert, and if a car is captured and if it doesn't ping a local law enforcement agency, then the data is simply deleted.

But New Jersey holds that data for three years, which privacy advocates told us is really concerning given the fact that law enforcement agencies and third parties can potentially use that information not just to surveil, but also figure out exactly where you work, where you live, where you worship, where you seek medical care, et cetera.

So one of the things that police say has been a real boon, a real benefit of these cameras is how they're able to address certain crimes, right?

Violent crimes, car thefts, they're able to find missing people.

But you point out that there's been a lot of different kind of communication to communities, sometimes from local police, in terms of what these cameras actually capture.

Some have been told that they're not looking at individuals, and yet we see that they're used for this purpose.

Can you square that for us?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So the cameras have been really instrumental for law enforcement to go after certain, you know, violent criminals, especially New Jersey car thefts.

But what experts told us was that, you know, in order to catch the very few cases of this kind of crime, the cameras indiscriminately record everyone.

So, you know, that data, whether or not you are under suspicion or, you know, have committed some kind of crime, is still being collected, which privacy advocates told us was really concerning and potentially unconstitutional.

Yeah, in this time of such polarization, so many issues are divisive.

It's interesting to see civil rights groups on the same side of this issue as Republican Senator and the state Senator Mike Testa, who has also raised some concerns about privacy here.

While lauding that the cameras can serve a great purpose, he says he wants to add some common sense guardrails.

What are you hearing from those civil rights groups?

What are you hearing from Senator Mike Testa?

From the civil rights groups, we're hearing that, you know, this is a severe privacy concern, mostly because the data can be used to surveil.

And it has been used to surveil people who are not criminals, people who have not committed a crime, are not accused of crime.

We were not able to find any kind of example in New Jersey as of yet, but in other states, you know, this data has been used to search for people who have seeked medical care and reproductive care has been used to stalk exes and all sorts of things, which of course, privacy advocates were really concerned about.

Now, Senator Testa, right after we published our investigation, announced that he will be introducing a bill at some point in September in the next quorum call to, as you said, establish some kind of guardrails.

Now, there have been two other bills that were introduced in the state legislature that have been, have stalled in committee so far.

So it will be interesting to see what exactly Senator Testa proposes and where that bill ends up.

And of course, Senator Benji Wimberly also wants a bill that he says he wants data only to see criminal penalties for misuse.

Although I don't know yet if there are any real clear guidance for proper use, but we have to leave it there.

Yana Cholokovskaya, investigative reporter for NJ.com.

Thank you so much.

Great reporting.

Under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Artificial intelligence is emerging as a life-saving technology in the healthcare space.

Researchers at RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers have been studying whether AI can help medical teams recognize when a hospitalized patient takes a turn for the worse.

is an underwriter of NJ Spotlight News.

One physician there led the study.

He's Dr.

Thomas Nahasz, an intensive care physician, and here's my recent conversation with him.

Dr.

Nahasz, so great to have you with us.

Can you explain for us what is an AI-enabled early warning system?

How does it work?

Yeah, so thanks for having me today to talk about it.

So an AI-enabled warning system is taking all of the data that's going on in a patient's complicated course inside of the hospital and basically boiling it down into a single score.

And what that does is helps us to predict whether or not a patient might have an event during their hospitalization where they might decompensate.

And when I say decompensate, what I kind of mean is if you're a car on slippery ice, if you start out by being able to fix it just with a couple of turns, sometimes it spins out of control.

And so we really want to take that AI-enabled early warning and prevent that from spinning out of control.

And so that's really what we implemented.

- I want to understand who are the patients who are most likely to benefit from this type of technology.

Is there a certain criteria that a patient has to meet in order to use this type of monitoring system on them?

Yeah, so the great thing is that it's constantly monitoring every patient that comes into our hospital.

And so they don't have to have any special factors about them.

But what it is, patients that come to the hospital are sick.

And so those sick patients sometimes decompensate.

The vast majority do not when they come to the hospital, which is a great thing and they get out of the hospital safely, but when something might happen during the hospitalization, those are the ones that we benefit the most from by being able to predict it earlier and get them the care that they need earlier in their disease course to really make that difference.

I know you're talking about what you call decompensate.

Is that the same as rapid deterioration, which I understand this is intended to help predict, right?

- Yes, exactly.

But it's really the partnership between the AI model with the rapid response team is what we studied.

And so it's really the human connection, being able to have something that's continuously monitoring all of the data in the chart, which the AI is really good at, but also having the team at the bedside to be able to get eyes on the patient and get them the care that they need.

And so it's really that partnership between AI and the clinicians, the highly skilled clinicians that get to the bedside that actually make the difference.

So it's not just one or the other.

- What makes this different than any other previous healthcare monitoring system?

I've had hospital stays myself, times when I've given birth to my kids and alarms go off and you have an entire care team who comes in and checks on you.

What makes the AI model different?

Yeah, so early warning systems have been around for a number of years.

And so what this is, is really looking at more factors in the patient's chart.

And it's an earlier warning as opposed to ones that are the late warnings, which are potentially heart rate being fast or breathing faster, things that you can see.

So, this takes that and puts it earlier to predict when a patient might potentially deteriorate.

And again, this is a rare event in the hospital stay, but it's something that we have so that patients that may be at risk or higher risk have the eyes on them that they need.

Tangibly, as a physician, what are the benefits of having an earlier warning system?

- Yeah, so I'm a critical care physician.

And so being able to get to patients earlier in their disease course makes it much easier to get out of that cycle.

And like I said, the car spinning out of control, if you're able to make the turn and adjustments right when you feel that patch of ice, it's easier to get out of.

And so when you get later and later in that critical disease course, it's harder and harder to make sure that they get the care that they need to save their lives.

There's still a lot of, I would say, probably fear and uncertainty about bringing AI into certain workspaces.

Have you felt that in the healthcare industry?

Have you felt a resistance to bringing in AI from your team members?

Or do you feel a welcoming from this type of technology?

Yeah, honestly it's a mix of both and rightfully so.

You know, patients are the most precious and their health is the most precious item that they have.

And so there's initially a little bit of skepticism, but being able to identify patients earlier and have it incorporated into the workflow really engenders trust among the clinicians that, hey, we're not just alerting for the sake of alerting, but really we're trying to focus on saving lives and saving the patients who need it the most.

So I think there's an initial skepticism, but rightfully so.

But I think that the next few years are going to be really interesting on how we combine the AI with the skilled clinicians to make sure that we have the best outcomes we can.

Yeah.

To that point, do you see a future where technology will be doing more of the diagnostics, even maybe more of the treatment than humans?

Well, it's an interesting question.

You know, AI is very good at taking a lot of data and bringing things to the forefront.

But it also, it also has the potential to be wrong, which, you know, so do humans.

But at the same time, you have to have this critical thought about what's being presented to you.

And I think that the power is really the partnership between AI and the clinicians, because it's really being able to have that critical thought about the patient in front of you.

And I think that the future of healthcare, it's always about the human to human connection.

And that's the really the strength of our profession and the privilege that we're able to have.

But I think that there's going to be certain tasks that certainly are going to make it easier to make diagnoses, see what's been happening in a patient's chart, as we have more lifelong histories in documented EHRs, so that they'll be able to bring what's relevant forward so that you can have that human to human connection.

And just quickly, when we look at the outcomes for this epic deterioration index, this AI model that we've been talking about, can you point to how it's actually changing lives or saving lives?

Yeah.

So, in these high-risk patients that we studied, those that reached that threshold of 60 or above, which is our red alert threshold, we saw an 18% reduction in mortality of those patients after risk adjustment.

So we feel that this has really helped our workflows.

We standardized our workflows across the enterprise and we were able to see really great outcomes from making sure that they get home safely to their families.

Yeah, new technology changing lives, but changing certainly the way that you work as well.

Dr.

Thomas Mayhas, intensive care physician and VP of health informatics at RWJBarnabas Health.

Thank you so much.

I appre That's going to do it for at NJ spotlight news.

Tha NJM insurance group, servi the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

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