ICE Claims Detainee Injured Himself By Running Headfirst Into A Wall

In news that should be shocking to absolutely no one, ICE agents are (allegedly) liars. When the federal government isn’t lying to protect ICE and Border Patrol agents from the consequences of their actions, the agents are (allegedly) doing it themselves. A group of medical professionals is expressing skepticism over the narrative ICE agents told to explain how a detainee was injured. 

According to AP, when ICE agents brought Alberto Castañeda Mondragón into Minnesota’s Hennepin County Medical Center, they told the staff that he “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall” after being handcuffed. A doctor and several nurses challenged that narrative, as they found that the explanation given by ICE couldn’t account for the fractures and bleeding throughout Castañeda Mondragón’s brain.

“It was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,” one of the nurses told AP anonymously, as they’re not allowed to disclose patient data. “There was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.” Court documents show that a CT scan revealed that Castañeda Mondragón had at least eight skull fractures and life-threatening hemorrhages in at least five areas of his brain. 

AP shared the data with Dr. Lindsey C. Thomas, an independent practitioner unrelated to the case, and she came to the same conclusion as the staff at Hennepin County Medical Center. “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,” Dr. Thomas told AP. 

According to court documents, Castañeda Mondragón said he was “dragged and mistreated by federal agents” when he was first hospitalized, but his condition deteriorated to the point that he didn’t know what year it was, and he couldn’t recall how he was injured. 

Things quickly became heated with the ICE agents when they wanted to shackle Castañeda Mondragón to his bed after he tried to get up. The nurses explained that it’s a common occurrence in people with brain injuries, and he wasn’t trying to escape. “We were basically trying to explain to ICE that this is how someone with a traumatic brain injury is — they’re impulsive,” the nurse said. “We didn’t think he was making a run for the door.”

The incident ultimately led to a meeting among the hospital’s security team, CEO, and attorney to decide how to handle ICE. “We eventually agreed with ICE that we would have a nursing assistant sit with the patient to prevent him from leaving,” the nurse said. “They agreed a little while later to take the shackles off.”

In addition to (allegedly) brutalizing their detainees, ICE agents are also harassing hospital staff and demanding proof of citizenship. It is absurd that people who spent years of schooling to become medical professionals are being harassed at their place of work by a group of armed, likely broke, illiterate bullies. 

“We have our policies, but ICE personnel as federal officers don’t necessarily comply with those, and that introduces tension,” an anonymous doctor at the hospital told AP.

Sadly, the idea that ICE agents brutalized a detainee isn’t particularly shocking. Deaths in ICE custody are reaching historical highs under the Trump administration, with an El Paso medical examiner recently labeling the death of a detainee in Texas as a homicide. If they’re not assaulting detainees, ICE agents are just straight-up killing U.S. citizens in the streets. Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest and hospitalization came only a day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good for the egregious crime of driving away. 

Court documents show that Alberto Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. legally in 2022 and started a construction company in St. Paul shortly after. He, like most of the people arrested by ICE, had no criminal record. “He was a brown-skinned, Latino Spanish speaker at a location immigration agents arbitrarily decided to target,” his lawyers said in a petition demanding his release from ICE custody. 

On Saturday, two weeks after his arrest, a U.S. District Court judge ordered his release from ICE custody.

​​“We are encouraged by the court’s order, which affirms that the rule of law applies to all people, in every corner of our country, including federal officers,” Jeanette Boerner, director of Hennepin County Adult Representation Services, which filed the lawsuit on Castañeda Mondragón’s behalf, said in a statement.

It’s easy to feel despair in the moment, but one day this madness is going to end. When it does, I hope the men and women in ICE who are perpetuating this terror campaign are unmasked and held accountable.

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