In addition to killing American citizens, ICE agents also enjoy inflicting brain injuries on people. Somehow, (I didn’t know an ICE agent had so much as the faintest remnants of a conscience), they realize that breaking a man’s skull in 5 places stands a decent chance of being wrong. So they lie about his injuries.
https://apnews.com/article/immigrat...is-hospitals-32cd5ca61d495e155d43b7cfd5e563b9
Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a
Minneapolis hospital with a Mexican immigrant who had broken bones in his face and skull.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Castañeda Mondragón had tried to flee while handcuffed and “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release.
But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old’s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.
“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” said one of the nurses, who
spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.”
The explanation from ICE is an example of recent run-ins between immigration officers and
health care workers that have contributed to mounting friction at Minneapolis hospitals. Workers at the Hennepin County facility say ICE officers have restrained patients in defiance of hospital rules and stayed at their sides for days. The agents have also lingered around the campus and pressed people for proof of citizenship.
Since the start of
Operation Metro Surge, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, ICE officers have become such a fixture at the hospital that administrators issued new protocols for how employees should engage with them. Some employees complain that they have been intimidated to the point that they avoid crossing paths with agents while at work and use encrypted communications to guard against any electronic eavesdropping.
Similar operations have been carried out by federal agents in
Los Angeles,
Chicago and other cities, where opponents have criticized what they say are overly aggressive tactics. It’s not clear how many people have required hospital care while in detention.
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 show.
The following week, a Jan. 16 court filing described his condition as minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.
AP shared the details of Castañeda Mondragón’s injuries with Dr. Lindsey C. Thomas, a board-certified forensic pathologist who worked as a medical examiner in Minnesota for more than 30 years. She agreed with the assessment of hospital staff.
“I am pretty sure a person could not get these kinds of extensive injuries from running into a wall,” Thomas said, adding that she would need to see the CT scans to make a more definitive finding.
“I almost think one doesn’t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can’t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall,” she said.
