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Timeline › 2025 › December › 12

December 12, 2025

3 entries on this date.

Family demands independent autopsy after Jean Wilson Brutus, 41, dies within a day of entering Delaney Hall

Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian national, died on December 12, 2025, at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey — roughly one day after entering ICE custody at the GEO Group-operated Delaney Hall Detention Facility. ICE reported he showed no signs of distress at intake and listed the cause of death as "unknown." His family and advocates sought an independent autopsy and called for the facility's closure; Brutus was believed to be the first detainee to die at Delaney Hall since it opened in May 2025.

St. Kitts and Nevis signed CARICOM-only third-country deportation MOU with United States

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew announced January 8, 2026 that his government had entered a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States, dated to December 12, 2025, allowing the transfer of CARICOM nationals — excluding Haitians and anyone with violent or sexual-offense records — who cannot be returned to their own countries. The first group, three people from Jamaica and Belize, was accepted in May 2026.

Oregon Rep. Greg Smith gave himself unapproved $66,000 raise and approved his own $51,000 in vacation pay, ethics panel found

Oregon's Government Ethics Commission unanimously found on December 12, 2025 that state Rep. Greg Smith, executive director of the Columbia Development Authority of Boardman, used a 2024 federal grant application to secure himself a $66,000 raise on his $129,000 salary without his board's approval, then signed his own timecards and approved his own paid time off -- including more than 54 vacation days between December 2024 and August 2025 -- worth more than $51,000 over three years. Smith signed a consent order on July 16, 2026 agreeing to pay a $12,000 civil penalty without admitting intentional wrongdoing, and has not repaid the roughly $33,000 in retroactive pay his board ordered returned after discovering the raise.