FORT WORTH (KXAS)—A North Carolina pastor was detained by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) and had a stroke while in custody, according to his family. Now, he’s in a Fort Worth area hospital, and they’re worried about the medical care he’s getting.
ICE said the pastor, 55-year-old Gabriel Johnson, who has been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, was detained nearly a month ago for overstaying his visa. ICE also confirmed he was taken to the hospital on July 30th with stroke symptoms.
His family said in 2004, he was issued a withholding of removal, allowing him to stay in the U.S. Since being hospitalized, they said they have not been able to get much information on how he’s doing, as they’ve only been briefly able to speak with him.
“While our dad was detained his first two weeks, he was able to at least give us phone calls throughout the day, check in with us, and we would check in him,” Gabri said. “But now that he’s been hospitalized, we have not been allowed regular phone calls or updates on his health status. And it’s been somehow even worse than when he was first taken.”
Johnson is described by his family as a loving father, husband, brother, and man of strong faith. Now his daughter leads their desperate push to keep his story in the spotlight.
“Please if anyone lives in the state of Texas, or works with immigration law and reform, I will do anything,” Gabri Johnson said in a desperate plea in her now-viral social media video she posted after her father was detained by ICE at his home.
“Just please help bring my father back home,” Gabri said.
According to Johnson’s family, he was brought to a detention facility in Texas where he then had a stroke, after just over two weeks in ICE custody.
ICE told NBC News Johnson, from Liberia, entered the country nearly 40 years ago on a 6-month visa. They say he was ordered to leave 35 years ago.
NBC News reports ICE said Johnson was taken to the hospital with stroke symptoms on July 30, is now stable and has access to 24-hour emergency care. According to ICE, detainees are not allowed to use their cell phones, but are allowed visitation.
“He is not getting the rehabilitation or treatment that he needs,” Gabri said. “He has remained on his back in that hospital bed.”
The Johnson family, concerned about the medical care he’s receiving while in ICE custody, flew to Texas from North Carolina, and said they only briefly got to see him. They said during their visit he was cuffed to his hospital bed.
“We have to fight for the right to have a say in his medical treatment,” Gabri said. “We’ve asked, is ICE making decisions for him? There is a lack of dignity and a serious amount of control.”
Johnson’s family is now asking questions about the line between federal immigration and local hospitals–as they take legal steps to try to get him released.
“We would like to see my father and thousands of other people treated with respect and dignity toward their basic human rights in the form of healthcare,” Gabri said.
ICE told NBC News Johnson will be transferred to a rehab facility and deported once medically cleared, adding that has a criminal history but did not provide any evidence supporting that.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst,” ICE said in a statement.
According to ICE, nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests involve individuals who are charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.