MINNEAPOLIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Intensive 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.<\/p>\n
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initially claimed Alberto Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n had tried to flee while handcuffed and \u201cpurposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,\u201d according to court documents filed by a lawyer seeking his release.<\/p>\n
But staff members at Hennepin County Medical Center determined that could not possibly account for the fractures and bleeding throughout the 31-year-old\u2019s brain, said three nurses familiar with the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was laughable, if there was something to laugh about,\u201d said one of the nurses, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss patient care. \u201cThere was no way this person ran headfirst into a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n
The explanation from ICE is an example of recent run-ins between immigration officers and healthcare 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.<\/p>\n
Since the start of President Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge, 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s not clear how many people have required hospital care while in detention.<\/p>\n
Injuries appeared inconsistent with ICE account<\/p>\n
The AP interviewed a doctor and five nurses who work at Hennepin County Medical Center who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n\u2019s case and conditions inside the hospital. The AP also consulted with an outside physician who affirmed his injuries were inconsistent with an accidental fall or running into a wall.<\/p>\n
ICE\u2019s account of how he was hurt evolved during the time that federal officers were at his bedside. At least one ICE officer told caregivers that Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n \u201cgot his [expletive] rocked\u201d after his Jan. 8 arrest near a St. Paul shopping center, the court filings and a hospital staff member said. His arrest happened a day after the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the first of two fatal shootings in Minneapolis by immigration officers.<\/p>\n
The situation reached a head when ICE insisted on using handcuffs to shackle his ankles to the bed, prompting a heated encounter with hospital staff, according to the court records and the hospital employees familiar with the incident.<\/p>\n
At the time, Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n was so disoriented he did not know what year it was and could not recall how he was injured, one of the nurses said. ICE officers believed he was attempting to escape after he got up and took a few steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were basically trying to explain to ICE that this is how someone with a traumatic brain injury is \u2014 they\u2019re impulsive,\u201d the nurse said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t think he was making a run for the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
Security responded to the scene, followed by the hospital\u2019s chief executive and attorney, who huddled in a doctor\u2019s office to discuss options for dealing with ICE, the nurse said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe eventually agreed with ICE that we would have a nursing assistant sit with the patient to prevent him from leaving,\u201d the nurse said. \u201cThey agreed a little while later to take the shackles off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n\u2019s injuries. A deportation officer skirted the issue in the court documents, saying that during the intake process at an ICE detention center, it was determined he \u201chad a head injury that required emergency medical treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregorio Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n said his older brother is from Veracruz, Mexico, and worked as a roofer. He has a 10-year-old daughter living in his hometown he helps support.<\/p>\n
According to his lawyers, Alberto Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n entered the U.S. in 2022 with valid immigration documents. Minnesota incorporation filings show he founded a company called Casta\u00f1eda Construction the following year with an address listed in St. Paul.<\/p>\n
He appears to have no criminal record. His lawyers told a court that Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n was racially profiled during the crackdown, and that officers determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a brown-skinned, Latino Spanish speaker at a location immigration agents arbitrarily decided to target,\u201d his lawyers wrote in a petition seeking his release from ICE custody.<\/p>\n
Eight skull fractures<\/p>\n
Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n 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.<\/p>\n
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 Hennepin County Medical Center.<\/p>\n
Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n was alert and speaking, telling staff he was \u201cdragged and mistreated by federal agents,\u201d though his condition quickly deteriorated, the documents show.<\/p>\n
The next week, a Jan. 16 court filing described his condition as minimally responsive and communicative, disoriented and heavily sedated.<\/p>\n
AP shared the details of Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pretty sure a person could not get these kinds of extensive injuries from running into a wall,\u201d Thomas said, adding that she would need to see the CT scans to make a more definitive finding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI almost think one doesn\u2019t have to be a physician to conclude that a person can\u2019t get skull fractures on both the right and left sides of their head and from front to back by running themselves into a wall,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
ICE officers stay with hospitalized detainees for days<\/p>\n
ICE officers have entered the hospital with seriously injured detainees and stayed at their bedside day after day, staffers said. 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. <\/p>\n
Hospital staff members said they were uncomfortable with the presence of armed agents they did not trust and who appeared to be untrained.<\/p>\n
The nurses interviewed by AP said they felt intimidated by ICE\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The hospital reminded employees that ICE officers are not permitted to access patients or protected information without a warrant or court order.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients under federal custody are first and foremost patients,\u201d hospital officials wrote in a bulletin outlining new protocols. The hospital\u2019s written policy also states that no shackles or other restraints should be used unless medically necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our policies, but ICE personnel as federal officers don\u2019t necessarily comply with those, and that introduces tension,\u201d said a doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment for the hospital.<\/p>\n
Hospital spokeswoman Alisa Harris said ICE agents \u201chave not entered our facilities looking for individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, more than two weeks after Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n was arrested, a U.S. District Court judge ordered him released from ICE custody. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are encouraged by the court\u2019s order, which affirms that the rule of law applies to all people, in every corner of our country, including federal officers,\u201d said Jeanette Boerner, director of Hennepin County Adult Representation Services, which filed the lawsuit on Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
To the surprise of some who treated him, Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n was discharged from the hospital Tuesday. A hospital spokeswoman said she had no information about him.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department filed court documents this week affirming Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n is no longer in custody. Prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment on the man\u2019s injuries. <\/p>\n
Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n has no family in Minnesota and co-workers have taken him in, the man\u2019s brother said. He has significant memory loss and a long recovery ahead. He won\u2019t be able to work for the foreseeable future, and his friends and family worry about paying for his care.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe still doesn\u2019t remember things that happened. I think [he remembers] 20% of the 100% he had,\u201d said Gregorio Casta\u00f1eda Mondrag\u00f3n, who lives in Mexico. \u201cIt\u2019s sad that instead of having good memories of the United States, you\u2019re left with a bad taste in your mouth about that country because they\u2019re treating them like animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brook, Mustian and Biesecker write for the Associated Press and reported from Minneapolis, New York and Washington, respectively. AP reporters Steve Karnowski and Sarah Raza in Minneapolis; Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas; and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Intensive care nurses immediately doubted the word of federal immigration officers when they arrived at a Minneapolis hospital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77253,14428,26484,828,18258,1583,2871,22508,349,48,52,51,47,50,49,1555,77255,77254,11908,16206,1290],"class_list":["post-158380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alberto-castaneda-mondragon","tag-condition","tag-court-document","tag-employee","tag-federal-immigration-officer","tag-hospital","tag-ice","tag-ice-officer","tag-injury","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-man","tag-minneapolis-hospital","tag-minnesota-nurse","tag-patient-care","tag-staff-member","tag-wall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}