ICE says immigrant with smashed face and skull ‘ran headfirst into a wall’
A Mexican immigrant suffered fractures to his head and face while in federal custody in Minneapolis.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents initially said Alberto Castañeda Mondragón, 31, ‘purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall’ while trying to flee, court files show.
But medics at Hennepin County Medical Center say such action could not possibly account for the extent of the fractures and bleeding throughout his brain.
One nurse said: ‘It’s laughable, if there was something to laugh about. There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.’
Castañeda Mondragón’s legal team say he entered the US in 2022 with valid immigration documents.
Minnesota incorporation filings show he founded a company called Castaneda Construction the following year with an address listed in St. Paul.
He appears to have no criminal record.
His lawyers told a court that Castañeda Mondragón was racially profiled during the crackdown, and that officers determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa.
In a petition seeking his release from ICE custody, they wrote: ‘He was a brown-skinned, Latino Spanish speaker at a location immigration agents arbitrarily decided to target.’
Castañeda Mondragón was initially taken to an ICE processing center at the edge of Minneapolis.
Court records include an arrest warrant signed upon his arrival by an ICE officer, not an immigration judge.
About four hours after his arrest, he was taken to a hospital emergency room in suburban Edina with swelling and bruising around his right eye and bleeding.
A CT scan revealed at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain, according to court documents.
He was then transferred to HCMC.
Castañeda Mondragón was alert and speaking, telling staff he was ‘dragged and mistreated by federal agents’, though his condition quickly deteriorated, the documents said.
The following week, a January 16 court filing described his condition as minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.
On Saturday, more than two weeks after Castañeda Mondragón was arrested, a US District Court judge ordered him released from ICE custody.
His younger brother said Castañeda Mondragón has no family in Minnesota and that coworkers have taken him in.
He has significant memory loss and a long recovery ahead. He won’t be able to work for the foreseeable future, and his friends and family worry about paying for his care.
‘He still doesn’t remember things that happened. I think (he remembers) 20% of the 100% he had,’ said Gregorio Castañeda Mondragón, who lives in Mexico.
ICE officers have entered the hospital with seriously injured detainees and stayed at their bedside day after day, staffers told the Associated Press as part of their investigation into the case.
The crackdown has been unsettling to hospital employees, who said ICE agents have been seen loitering on hospital grounds and asking patients and employees for proof of citizenship.
Hospital staff members said they were uncomfortable with the presence of armed agents they did not trust and who appeared to be untrained.
The nurses interviewed by AP said they felt intimidated by ICE’s presence in the critical care unit and had even been told to avoid a certain bathroom to minimize encounters with officers.
They said staff members are using an encrypted messaging app to compare notes and share information out of fear that the government might be monitoring their communications.
The hospital reminded employees that ICE officers are not permitted to access patients or protected information without a warrant or court order.
‘Patients under federal custody are first and foremost patients,’ hospital officials wrote in a bulletin outlining new protocols.
The hospital’s written policy also states that no shackles or other restraints should be used unless medically necessary.
‘We have our policies, but ICE personnel as federal officers don’t necessarily comply with those, and that introduces tension,’ said a doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment for the hospital.
Hospital spokeswoman Alisa Harris said ICE agents ‘have not entered our facilities looking for individuals’.
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