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Protesters gather outside the Delaney Hall Detention Facility during protests over federal immigration enforcement operations, in Newark, New Jersey, on June 12, 2025. Olga Fedorova/AP Photo
Two of the four detainees who escaped from a federal immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, on June 12 have been apprehended, according to the FBI. The other two are still at large.
The FBI has reportedly captured Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras previously charged with aggravated assault and illegal possession of a handgun, and Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada, a Colombian national charged with burglary and theft.
The agency did not release any details about the circumstances of their arrests. The Epoch Times sought information from the agency but did not hear back by publication time.
The agency’s field office in Newark issued a wanted notice on June 15 stating that it was offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of each of the two remaining escaped illegal immigrants, Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes and Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon.
Bautista-Reyes, a 20-year-old Honduran national, illegally entered the United States in 2021, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
He was initially arrested in May on charges including aggravated assault, attempted bodily injury, terroristic threats, and possession of a weapon. The FBI stated that his last known address was in Long Branch, New Jersey.
The other escaped detainee, Pineda-Mogollon, 25, is a Colombian national who entered the United States in 2023 and overstayed his tourist visa. The agency said that he has ties to Queens, New York.
DHS stated that Pineda-Mogollon was first arrested by the New York City Police Department on April 25 for petit larceny, and again on May 21 by the New Jersey Police Department on charges of residential burglary, conspiracy to commit residential burglary, and possession of burglary tools.
All four illegal immigrants escaped from the Delaney Hall facility in Newark on June 12, although the circumstances surrounding the escape remain unclear. In a June 13 statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the incident but emphasized that there was “no widespread unrest” at the facility.
Delaney Hall is a 1,000-bed facility located along an industrial stretch of Newark Bay, which has been the site of ongoing protests against federal immigration enforcement actions since it opened earlier this year.
On May 9, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), along with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other congressional members, entered Delaney Hall detention center when the security gate opened to allow a bus of illegal immigrant detainees through. Baraka was arrested later that day and charged with the misdemeanor of trespassing. The charges were later dropped.
The Department of Justice later filed a criminal complaint against McIver for assaulting, resisting, and impeding an ICE agent and a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.
McIver has denied any wrongdoing, saying that she and other lawmakers were only exercising their “lawful oversight responsibilities” to inspect how ICE detainees were being treated at the facility.
